Welcome to 22nd Stoke Scout Group! We are the group that made the biggest come back you’ve ever seen and growing all the time. There are nearly 100 young people in our Group, and over 30 adult volunteers who provide a fun and varied programme of activity every week. This page pulls together all the relevant information that you need if your child is about to join one of the sections at 22nd Stoke. All our volunteers are here to help, so please feel free to ask if there is anything you are unsure about.

What is Scouting?

Scouting is not simply a social club or youth club. We are a uniformed organisation, for both boys and girls, with a fantastic history and reputation for providing fun, challenge and adventure to young people across all backgrounds over the last century and a bit. We teach each young person valuable life skills, using methods that relate to the very roots of Scouting. Many of the activities that we do involve the outdoors, because we find that our young people enjoy being outdoors more than anything else. To show skills that have been learned we award various badges that are worn on the uniform with pride.

We split our young people in different age groups, in order to provide age-appropriate challenge and adventure. We have the following Sections, click one to explore further:

• Squirrel Scouts – age 4 to 6
• Beaver Scouts – age 6 to 8
• Cub Scouts – age 8 to 10 1/2
• Scouts – age 10 1/2 to 14

Our district also offers

• Explorer Scouts – age 14 to 18
• Scout Network – age 18 to 25th birthday

At 22nd Stoke we have one Squirrel Drey, two Beaver Colonies, two Cub Packs, one Scout Troops, and are hopeful to sure an partnered Explorer section.

Each Section is organised into smaller units of approximately 6 young people. Each of these units is lead by one of the young people themselves, who has proven themselves ready for the challenge. Beaver Colonies are split into Lodges, with a Lodge Leader. Cub Packs are split into Sixes, with a Sixer in charge and a Seconder as their second-in-command. Scout Troops are split into Patrols, with a Patrol Leader and an Assistant Patrol Leader in each. As well as these there are adult volunteers who run the Sections, with the help of parents who lend a hand occasionally.

What is Involved in Joining?

Your child will be able to try out Scouting for a few weeks before deciding if they want to make their Promise and be invested into the Section. Before they do this their leaders will provide them a small amount of initial training on what it means to become a Beaver, Cub or Scout, and they will understand what they are promising.

The leaders will let you know when they are going to be invested, and you should be able to watch this ceremony if you like. To be invested they will need to have their uniform. Details of this are described later, but essentially they will need a sweatshirt or shirt of the correct colour, and navy blue trousers.

The ceremony varies depending of the age group, but in all cases the ceremony will take place together with the whole Section. Often there are a number of young people making their promise, and they will all be brought out to the front to make their promise while making the Scout Sign. Their leader will place their necker around their neck to signify that they are now part of the Group. They will be welcomed to the Section, and will also be presented with the badges that identify them as belonging to their Section, 22nd Stoke Scout Group, Three Towns District and the Worldwide Family of Scouts.

As part of the investiture training your child should agree to our Code of Conduct. We take inappropriate behaviour very seriously at 22nd Stoke, and will, if necessary, ask a child to leave if there is no other option. Obviously this is a very regrettable action, and so we also reward good attendance and behaviour.

What else are we part of?

As mentioned earlier, each Section (Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers) are all part of the larger organisation, 22nd Stoke Scout Group (also known locally as Stoke Scouts). There are many other Scout Groups nearby and, we are all part of Three Towns District. The District is part of Staffordshire Scouts, which also contains the Districts of Potteries North, Newcastle, and right down to Walsall. Even further up you find that we are part of The Scout Association, which is the main UK-based Scout organisation consisting of over 500,000 young people and volunteers, and which is itself part of the World Organisation of Scout Movements (WOSM). Worldwide there are 57 million Scouts in 174 countries, all of whom follow a common set of ethics and values which identifies Scouts anywhere you go.

When are Meetings Held?

Each of our Sections meets through term time on a set evening and time. Occasionally these can vary to suit the activity being done, or to allow for joint activities between Sections or within the whole Group. In general, however, the Sections meet at the following times:

How Much does it Cost?

There is a monthly subscription for belonging to the Group (not the Section) which is paid via Online Scout Manager (OSM) every month (including school holidays). This money goes to providing a fun and challenging programme each week, maintaining our Scout Hut, improving our activity and camping equipment, and providing insurance and other services. You will be invited to join OSM via a Parent Portal after joining, where you will be able to set up monthly payments via GoCardless.

You won’t be asked to make a payment for the first month that your child is in 22nd Stoke, and following that payments are due at the end of each month.

There are sometimes extra costs for more expensive activities and for residential trips, although we subsidise activities and tend to get pretty good value for camps in comparison to schools doing the same activity.

Do Parents get Involved?

We love parents or guardians to get involved! In some sections we run a dedicated parents’ rota where we encourage all parents to help out once a term, but in all sections we welcome volunteers to hang out with us at any time at all. There is a space on the joining form to let us know if you’d be interested in getting involved in any way, so please tick a box or two on there, or just talk to one of our volunteers to find out more. The basic info is that it’s free to volunteer, loads of fun, and it helps us to provide an even better programme for your children!

We also run events where the whole family can get involved, such as our Annual General Meeting, Family Camps, and fundraising events.

What Uniform do I Need?

The Scout Association is a uniformed organisation, and every young person and volunteer is expected to wear their uniform with pride. There are a small number of compulsory items of uniform:

The Group necker and woggle will be provided when your child is invested. The sweatshirts and shirts may be purchased from shop.scouts.org.uk, or from anywhere else so long as the colour matches.

Every young person (and adult volunteer!) earns badges throughout their time in Scouting. For badge diagrams showing where to sew these on to the uniform, see badges.

Online Scout Manager (OSM)

Once you have joined the Group you will be invited to join OSM. You will access the system through the Parent Portal, through which you will be able to edit all your contact info, as well as details of your child such as medical details and allergies. You should also tell us if you are happy for us to take photos of them and display them on our closed Facebook Groups, and set up the regular payment of fees. Finally, you can choose to allow us to collect Gift Aid from HMRC, and you can make payments for events.

Just some of the things you can then do are:

• See your child’s badge records,
• view the programme and how it counts towards badges,
• sign up to, and pay for, events.
• Update your child’s details

To log on to OSM visit www.OnlineScoutManager.co.uk. For more info on how to use it, visit this page.

What Details do I Need to Provide?

You will need to provide personal details of your child and their parents / guardians. We collect details about how to contact parents or guardians, doctor’s name, special needs, and dietary requirements. This information is important when planning or attending an adventurous activity or camp away from home.

Also included is a Gift Aid Declaration. This is very important to the Scout Group as it allows us to claim a further 25% of all subscriptions, fees or other donations from the Government. The way it does this is by claiming a tax rebate on all of this money. For this reason, one or more parents must be paying taxes for this form to be signed. If you are, then please provide permission for us to claim Gift Aid, by completing the Gift Aid declaration on the form. In any event, it won’t cost you anything extra.

You will then be able to access OSM via the Parent Portal at www.OnlineScoutManager.co.uk where you can update your contact details and anything else, as well as seeing progress towards awards and programme, and make payments towards subs and large events. For any event you will need to have confirmed your details within the past three months before being able to sign up, which helps us to keep contact and medical details up to date.

Policies

At 22nd Stoke we take safety and safeguarding very seriously. Every volunteer has appropriate training, including First Aid, Safety, Safeguarding and Getting Started. Volunteers with more responsibility complete additional modules covering items such as Programme, Finance, Leadership, and many other topics. We have policies covering Safeguarding, Vetting, Safety, Date Protection, Conduct, and Adventurous Activities.

See our Policy Page for more information.

Members of 22nd Stoke Scout Group have certain expectations of us, and us of them. We have policies around waiting lists, data, subscriptions, hardships, and complaints.

When do we Start?

Your Section leader will contact you with a start date following your submission onto our waiting list or filling in the forms on your respective section. We should already have emergency contact details for you, but please make sure that these are up to date before you arrive. You will be included on our mailing lists, and your child is welcome to join in any and all activities or camps from the day they start. In around a month’s time they will be asked if they want to be invested and become a member of our Scout Group.

That’s a whole lot of information, but hopefully it has given you a better idea of what is involved in Scouting. It’s a very large commitment for a young person to make, but over 115 years of Scouts have proved that it is of huge benefit to everybody involved, and I am sure that it will continue to be for many years to come. I look forward to welcoming your child into our Group shortly.