Welcome to Cubs

General information on being a cub can be found on the Scouts website. The various Cub Scout promises can also be found here.

Uniform

Cubs may wear a dark green sweatshirt with a Group scarf (often called a necker, given at first enrolment) and a woggle in the colour of their Six. There are robust Cub trousers available if desired. Uniform suppliers include:
The Scouts Shop
Beats School Uniforms
We also ask that our Scout group have a green 1st CW t-shirt for camps available here. This gives us easy identification of our Cubs/Scouts in the midst of a sea of identical uniforms.

Eagles Cub Pack

Meet on Fridays 6.30-8pm, term time only.

Leaders
Jonathan White
Katherine Fawcett
Bruce Rawstone

Eagles cubs ethos
Based on scouts values of …

Integrity, Respect, Care, Belief and Cooperation…
We have fun, we try new challenges, we make friends, we are tolerant, we develop and grow in independence and confidence. We live by our Promise.
We earn badges by joining in with activities at Cubs and also the skills we learn elsewhere.

Therefore, we ask parents to encourage independence in their Cubs, to try new things, to persevere, and to respect themselves, their peers and the adult leaders and helpers. This builds their confidence and allows them to get the most from the Scouting experience.

For example, please try to hold back from excessively ‘taking over’ at Cubs, and try to have your Cubs do their own packing for camp & hikes.

There is an element of risk at Cubs – this is a key aspect of Scouting, we mitigate it, we plan for it, but we don’t remove it.

Guide to Badges in Cubs

Activity badges

Many of the badges available are activity badges, which allow Cub Scouts to show their progress in existing pursuits, but also to try all kinds of new things and form new interests.

Challenge awards

Gaining a challenge badge involves accomplishing a number of more am- bitious tasks within the Pack or community. There are several challenge badges across a number of themes, from the physical and outdoorsy to challenges dealing with the local community or issues connected with the Scouting world. When cubs are awarded all their challenge badges, they get the coveted Silver Scout award. We aim for all our cubs to get this in their time with us, and it is transferred onto their scout uniform.

Personal challenge

For this challenge badge we will give our Leader’s challlenge – could be to give a presentation or a challenging activity.

The second one is agreed between the Cub and parents. It should be a bit of a stretch, but doable. Eg: keep bedroom tidy for 3 weeks, look after your pet without any help, get organised for school the night before, make your pack lunch every day for 2 weeks etc. We will generally set this challenge in the Cub’s last term. All badge requirements are adapted to the ability of the child, so those with special needs are challenged at their level.

Core badges

In addition, there are a number of special badges, obtained upon joining or moving on from the Pack, or for time spent in the Scouting movement.

There is more information about the badges on the Scouting website and a guide to badge placement is here. You can also log on as a parent on OSM (Online scout manager) www.onlinescoutmanager.co.uk.

Sixers / Seconders

After some time in the pack, Cubs may be chosen to be sixers or seconders of their six. We decide this, and we may also have to move cubs between sixes occasionally.

Sixers and seconders are given extra responsibilities in the pack – organising their six during the activities and leading, helping new cubs or those with extra needs, running a cubs night themselves, coming to Forums to develop the programme etc.

We aim for most Cubs to be given this role at some point, some will be both sixers and seconders, occasionally some may miss out. We expect good attendance levels, good behaviour and adherence to the Cub promise in those we select.

Camps

These are an exciting and important part of being a Cub Scout. Please encourage your Cub to attend. We do not usually allow Cubs to attend part of a camp – it is all or nothing, as otherwise it is disruptive to the other scouts and Camp organisation. We do need extra parent help to run these busy events – they are a lot of fun for all attendees! Any parent staying overnight on a camp must have a DBS, this can be easily arranged with our Scout administrator, Anne Maria, please contact us in good time to arrange.

What we need from parents please

1. Information

Health conditions in your children, any allergies or intolerances. If they have to carry medication with them – Epi-pens, inhalers, tablets, then we must know what they have, and when/how it has to be given. It would be strongly recommended that we are given a spare set of medication to hold in our first aid kit (always carried with us).

Behavioural conditions in your children and ways of managing them. We may ask for you to attend with your child if required, to allow us to be able to supervise the rest of the pack safely. We aim to be as inclusive as much as possible, as long as we are able to run the evenings safely, and give sufficient attention to the whole pack.

Please do come and talk to us about any concerns: we will not tolerate bullying for example.

We are operating a yellow card/red card system for severe behaviour problems. 2 Yellow cards will mean the Cub is excluded for 1 week. A Red card will mean the Cub is excluded for 2 weeks and a warning is given. A second red card may mean permanent exclusion. We would not give out a yellow/red card for minor issues, and we would absolutely make allowances for those with known diagnoses.

2. Help

We ask that you come along as a parent helper to at least 1 Cubs event per term. We have to have a certain ratio of adults to children to be able to carry out the planned activities safely. Therefore, we will allocate parents to a particular date if we don’t hear from you. If you are unable to attend your allocated evening/day then it is the responsibility of the par- ent to arrange a swap for another date. We wouldn’t share your email address (to facilitate swaps/lifts etc) unless you give permission. Normally we send emails from our online portal so that you do not see other par- ent email addresses.

3. Subs

These are payable by direct debit only. You will be contacted to set up your direct debit soon after starting (by our treasurer). If you are unable to pay, there are hardship funds to assist (please speak to us in confi- dence). We run an exciting programme which we aim to use the subs for except for occasional more expensive activities where we will ask for ex- tra payment on the night (water activities, camps etc). We are a charitable organisation and we can’t run successfully without subs. The direct debits will stop as soon as you leave our section.

4. Care at drop off/pick up time

We want to start promptly at 6.30. Finish time will be around 8pm, although if there are badge presentations etc it may be slightly delayed. Parents are welcome to watch presentations and investitures. Please let us know if someone else is picking up your Cub at the end. We have to know that the Cubs have been collected by their responsible adult, so please make sure we have acknowledged you picking up your child. We have a register at each evening whether in or out of the Hut.

5. Contact details

We include our mobile numbers in every email we send with the up to date details for the upcoming Cub evening. Please ensure we have a contact for you, in case of emergency. If you know you will be out of signal etc, please provide an alternative contact. We will also ensure we have a contact who is available even if we are out in a poor reception area. This will be on the emails.

6. Share the adventure

Think about whether you could do even more: an assistant leader, or join the executive committee, or just help with admin or anything you can! Contact a leader for more information – they all started out as parents of children in scout.