Cubs Welcome Pack

Welcome

Welcome to 5^th Beckenham South Cub Scout Pack .  We are delighted to welcome your child as a new Cub and hope they enjoy our meetings. We aim to provide interesting and challenging activities, in a fun, friendly and safe environment.

If you have any questions, please contact the appropriate leader, for any general questions on Cubs, please contact either of the leaders using the emails below.

Our cub packs

Chil pack (Monday)

Our Monday cubs are Chil Pack, named for Chil the Kite from the Jungle Book,

This is the bird who helps Mowgli by pinpointing his whereabouts and alerting Baloo and Bagheera of the location.

Rikki pack (Tuesday)

Our Tuesday cubs are Rikki Pack, named for Rikki-tikki-tavi the mongoose. Rikki-tikki-tavi is a little mongoose befriended by a young boy and his parents in The Jungle Book.

A loyal pet, he saves the family on more than one occasion from a dangerous cobra and the cobra’s wife.

Overview

Cub Scouts are aged 8 to 10½.

We have two cub packs, Chil Pack and Rikki Pack. Chil meet on a Monday and Rikki meet on a Tuesday, from 7 to 8:30pm. We have some joint meetings through the year and run joint camps and weekend activities.  The programmes are the same for both groups.

All leaders are volunteers and are trained by the Scout Association so that they can provide exciting and safe activities.  All leaders and assistants are DBS checked before helping and are first aid trained.  We also have a good team of young leaders – these are older scouts who volunteer to help with the groups. 

Cubs take part in lots of fun activities like camping, going on trips, playing games and making things. 

All activities are fully risk assessed and risk assessments are available on request.

We normally go camping overnight at Whitsun and at Christmas.  Other recent activities have included Docklands water activity day, activity days at Frylands scout centre, bowling – see our photo gallery for an idea of the activities we have taken part in: https://www.scoutsphotos.com. Contact the leaders for the password.

Safety and medical information

All activities are fully risk assessed but very occasionally accidents do occur so we need to be aware of any medical conditions and your emergency contact details. We also must be made be aware of any allergies (including food) as we do cooking and other activities during our meetings. We therefore ask that all parents complete the information on OSM and if this information changes please let one of the leaders know in addition to updating on OSM.

If your child requires regular medication, such as an inhaler, or has an EpiPen, please ensure that it is brought to weekly meetings and that the leaders know where it can be found.

Promise and Motto

One of the things that makes Scouting different from most youth organisations is that it is based around a promise that all members of the Scout Association make, with suitable variants appropriate to the age group and variants according to religion or for those with no defined faith.

An example Cub Scout Promise is

I promise to do my best
To do my duty to God and to the Queen
To help other people
And to keep the Cub Scout Law

Click here for other variations.

The Cub Scout Law is:

Cub Scouts always do their best
Think of others before themselves
And do a good turn every day.

The Cub Scout motto is:

Be prepared

Uniforms

Once your child has been with us for a few weeks, they will need a uniform.  They should wear comfy clothes for their first few meetings, suitable for sporty games, or beaver uniform.  Uniform should be worn to every meeting unless we advise otherwise.

The uniform consists of green Cub Scout sweatshirt (this is what the badges are sewn to); dark trousers and the group scarf. 

The scarf, woggle and badges are supplied by the group.  The sweatshirt will need to be purchased by the cub.

Please ensure that all uniform and scarves are labelled – we have drawer full of unnamed unclaimed uniform.

See our Uniform Page for where to buy uniform.

Badges

Our programme consists of activities aimed at achieving badges and these are awarded approximately every half term.  There's more about badges here

Position of badges

Certain badges earned in the Beaver Scout Colony can be transferred to the Cub Scout uniform i.e. Membership Badge, Group, District and County badges, the highest Joining-in Award, any Staged Activity Badges and the Chief Scout’s Bronze Award.

For badges with several levels, such as Staged Activity Badges, only the highest numbered badge achieved should be worn on the uniform.

You will find more information on badges on the Scouts Association website scouts.org.uk

Online Scout Manager, also known as My.Scout, is the tool used by the Group to record information about the members of the Group. The system allows parents to access the system meaning that they can see various details for their children such as personal details, events and awarded badges. Parents can also find out where badges go,  update their children’s details on the system and respond to the future emails about various events throughout the year.  Please ensure the details are kept up to date on OSM

GDPR (Data Protection)

The majority of our data is stored within a web application called Online Scout Manager (OSM). The tool is itself GDPR compliant and allows all members of the Group to keep their information up to date.   All this data is required for legitimate reasons to manage the various sections of the Scout Group. Other data is also requested, for example Health Forms for camps, and is handled appropriated and destroyed when no longer required.

Photos

From time to time we take photos which we put on the website or one of our Facebook or Instagram groups so that parents can see what they have been doing. We do not identify any child but if you do not want your child to appear in any photos, please let us know on Online Scout Manager and also notify the leader of your child’s group.

Communicating with parents

Most of our communication with parents is via email so please ensure that we have an email address you check regularly.

Attendance

Due to the shortage of places available and the number of children waiting to join Cubs, we ask that Cubs attend meetings regularly.  We do understand that there are valid reasons for non-attendance, but in the absence of any communication, Cubs not attending for three weeks in a row, or for more than half of any term will trigger a review of their on-going membership, which may result in their place being withdrawn. We will always give parents an opportunity to explain the reason for non-attendance prior to this happening.

Cubs Behaviour and Conduct

All Cubs are expected to be polite, considerate and respectful to others, take turns, share, play fairly, be quiet when others are speaking and take care of equipment.  Fighting, kicking, shouting, teasing, bad language, hitting, pushing and bullying are not acceptable and this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated. We encourage all Cubs to report this behaviour when it occurs.

Minor incidents will be discussed with the Cub directly and may result in a ‘time out’ during a game or activity if appropriate. More serious or repeated incidents will result in the Cub’s parents being contacted and you could be asked to collect your child from a meeting or camp. We want all of our Cubs to enjoy their time with us to the full – but not at the expense of others in the Pack.

The support of parents is very much appreciated in enabling us to correct unacceptable behaviour, but we do ultimately reserve the right to suspend or remove the Cub from the Pack if opportunities to improve are not taken or the incident is serious enough.

Concerns

Every Cub has an absolute right to be comfortable at Pack meetings and activities. If anything happens that makes your child, or you, concerned or worried or if the behaviour of a Leader or fellow Cub is in any way inappropriate then they and you must let us know.

You should speak about your concern in the first place to the Cub Scout Leader, but if you prefer you can speak to the Lead Volunteer who is responsible for all Scouting in the 5^th Beckenham South group.

For safeguarding concerns, click here.

Subscriptions ("Subs")

Subs help us pay for the running of the group, hut, materials, insurance and so on. Subs are payable termly for each child and can be paid online. Each term you will receive an invitation to pay by direct debit – you can either authorize each payment as it becomes due, or can setup a continuing payment, subject to the Direct Debit guarantee - click here for more information.

Help with payments: the group has access to funds to help we encourage parents to talk to a leader or contact the treasurer in confidence ([email protected]) if they would like help with the cost of scouting. We are able to make sure that children continue with the group though other sources of funding. Cost should not be a bar to membership – “no cub left behind.” Subs must be paid on time or contact made if you would like some support.

Our Team