What do you want to look at? • Join in • Beavers • Cubs • Scouts • Explorers • Adults • Group • Links What do you want to check? Joining Investiture Your uniform Badges to get Beaver history

You’ll spend lots of time outside with your Colony. Together, you might build a den or have a Beaver sleepover because being a Beaver is all about making the most of what you have, and trying new activities and having the courage to try new things and learn from them.

Joining Beavers

You can go to the Beaver meetings once you are 5¾ years old or over. Once you've been to a few meetings, you'll soon find that you are ready to join the Colony and enjoy Beaver Scouting. To become a Beaver, you need to earn your Membership Award - for this need to find out about the Beaver Colony by • Going to at least four meetings and find out about activities you can do • Getting to know other Beavers and leaders in the Colony • Finding out about ceremonies and traditions in the Colony • Showing that you know about the family of Scouts, worldwide Scouting and the history of Scouting. • Show that you understand the Beaver Scout Promise and that you know the Scout Motto, sign and handshake • Learning the meaning of the badges you will receive • Become a Beaver by making the Promise when you are Invested Download information about Beavers

Getting Invested

Your Investiture is a special day when you make your Beaver Promise for the first time, then you become a member of Wedmore Beaver Colony and receive the Membership Award; which means that you are part of the worldwide family of Scouts. Your parents and family usually come to hear you make your Promise at this ceremony. To be invested as a Beaver, you need to know the Beaver Scout Promise, it is: ‘I promise that I will do my best, to be kind and helpful and to love God. After you make your Promise, you will receive your Membership Award and will receive a lemon and red coloured scarf (sometimes called a ‘necker’) with the ‘Isle of Wedmore’ badge on it, to show that you belong to Wedmore Group Download a Beaver Promise sheet

Your uniform

It would be best if you bought your uniform a few weeks after deciding to join the Colony to ensure that you settle in and that Scouting is for you. The main parts of the Beaver Scout uniform are: • Sweatshirt – that you can sew your Beaver Scout badges on - it is turquoise in colour and has a purple trim. • Group Scarf – Wedmore Scout Group, wear a lemon and red coloured scarf - sometimes it is called a ‘necker’. It has the Wedmore Group badge on the back of it. The scarf is presented to you when you are invested in the Colony. • Woggle – this is a coloured plastic or leather ring, which holds your scarf in place. The colour shows which Lodge you belong to and will be given to you when you are invested

Challenges & badges

You can see how you are getting on in the Beavers, as there are several Challenge Awards to try to gain. You will do most of the things that you need to complete during your usual weekly meetings. There are also Activity Badges to test your skills and help you with new interests. These can also help you complete some of your Challenge Awards and the Chief Scout's Award. Additionally, there are special staged badges covering a range of topics and skills you can tackle through your time in the Beavers Cubs and Scouts. You may need help from a grown-up person to understand what you need to do for some badges.

Challenge Awards

You will get the chance to do Challenge Awards, which show that you are trying new things. You need to get all six Challenge Awards and any four activity badges, or staged activity badges, to get the Chief Scout's Bronze Award. Click on any of the badges to go to the Scout Association website, which will tell you what you need to do to meet the challenge.

Chief Scout's Bronze Award

This particular badge is the highest Award you can get in Beaver Scouts, and usually you will only get it when you are nearly old enough to leave the Beavers. To earn it, you have to complete all the Challenge Awards and do any four activity badges or staged activity badges. If you have not entirely completed the requirements for this award when you move on to the Cub Pack, you can complete it in your first few weeks with the Cubs.

Activity Badges

They cover a vast range of skills, experiences, and interests and are for you to achieve at home or through a hobby you have, or you may want to try on something that is of particular interest to you. Click here to go to the Scout Association website, where you will find a list of all of the Cub Activity Badges and details of what to do to achieve them.

Staged Badges

These badges have several stages, which get more difficult as they go on - they are to help you develop your special interests and help complete your Challenge and Chief Scout's Awards. They can be done in any order and cover a range of topics and skills; you can begin at whatever stage you find to be the hardest. However, the stages do get more difficult each time.

Joining-in Awards

These numbered badges show how many years you have been in the Scout Movement, starting from the time you first joined. You can wear all of the badges you get while in the Beavers, then keep the highest numbered badge when you move on to Cubs

Moving-on Award

The Moving-on Award helps you to move on to the Cub Pack when you are about eight years old - to gain it, you must: • Go to both Beavers and Cubs for at least three weeks, and take an active part in the Cubs meeting • Work for the Cubs Membership Award during this time - you can find out about this by clicking here Usually, the Beaver Leader presents you with your Moving-on award at a going up ceremony. If you have completed the Cub Membership Award requirements, the Cub Leader can arrange for your investiture as a Cub. You wear your Beaver Scout Moving-on Award on your Cub sweatshirt, as well as your Joining-In Badge (highest number); and if you have gained it, your Chief Scout's Bronze Award. Look at the Cubs section to find out about the badges and awards that you can gain.

How Beavers started

Beaver Scouts began in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and slowly spread across the country, and finally got its uniform in 1982. However, it only became an official section of Scouting 3½ years later, when a simple Promise was introduced. In those days, Beaver Scouts wore a grey sweatshirt and turquoise necker with a maroon woggle and got just the membership badge and one other badge after they had been in the Colony for at least a year. For a long time, just one badge was felt to be not enough! - this is a picture of it. There was a bit of a change in 1995 when a new badge scheme started; however, all it meant was that the single Beaver Scout badge was split into two halves (of six months each), and there was a new Beaver Scout Challenge. Many other changes have taken place since, such as replacing the turquoise necker with the Group necker; and accepting girls; also changing the grey sweatshirt for a turquoise one, and the use of lodge coloured woggles instead of the maroon Beaver woggle. Additionally, there are now lots of new badges to get. Find out how Cubs started

Who are Beavers?

Beavers are young people

aged 6 to 8 who have fun

and go on adventures with

their new friends, who try

new things and skills and

help to make a difference to

others.

Every week, they gather in groups called Beaver Colonies to hop, skip and jump their way through lots of different games and activities – achieving anything they set their minds to and having lots of fun along the way. Going to Beavers is very different from going to school: instead of learning from books, you’ll figure the world out by exploring, playing and doing.