What to Expect and Why it's Important.
This is going to be a long post and I suspect some of the material first shared here will later make it to the website as part of other pages.
Scouting is always evolving, trying to make sure it remains relevant. That is one of our strengths, whilst our core has always remained the same — "Scouting exists to actively engage and support young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society", — the way we have done this has evolved and moved with the times. One of the areas that modern scouting has really taken to heart is that scouting is for young people and as such should be led by young people.
That sounds kinda radical but it is not saying we hand over the reigns to the young people rather that "Scouting takes place when young people, in partnership with adults, work together based on the values of Scouting". This means that the young people, our Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Network members should be involved in making the decisions. How this is achieved will look different with each of the age groups. So, to make sure that Scouting stays exciting and relevant, the programme should be shaped by young people in partnership with adults. This means young people working together with adults to influence their whole Scouting experience. Young people can provide ideas and suggestions of activities they would like to try, share their own skills with other young people, and shape how Scouting is operated.
It is important that we listen to the young people and help them be a part of how their scout group works. As part of this we will continue to involve the young people in their program planning, encouraging them to take an active part and to feed back what was good and what was not so good and why they found it so.
So, this post is supposed to be about programme and the new changes and I guess that means we better first answer the question 'what do we mean by programme?' Scouting offers a diverse and exciting selection of activities and experiences that are key to attracting and retaining young people. The Scouting programme provides adventure and challenge to young people in an age-appropriate way, helping them with their personal development and to grow their confidence. The programme of activities is planned by the sectional leadership team in partnership with young people. The programme should be flexible and have room to adapt and accommodate the needs of the individuals in the section.
The Scouting programme for all five sections is based around three main themes: 'outdoor & adventure', 'world' and 'skills'. In each section a range of badges and awards are there to support all aspects of Scouting, including the three main themes as well as, leadership, teamwork and personal development.
The programme should be delivered in a balanced way that incorporates elements from each theme, to offer young people the most interesting, diverse and high quality experience, enabling every young person to achieve the top award in that section. The programme is designed to be progressive through the sections to offer young people an appropriate level of challenge.
It is recommended that the Scouting programme, in all sections, should spend 50% of the time working on “outdoors and adventure” areas. This does not mean that 50% of the time young people need to be outdoors, but that the programme should have activities with an outdoor and adventure theme, although the more time you can spend outside the better!
Time for a video methinks.....
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