Welcome to 8th Basildon Cub Scouts

   

Our Cubs meet in Lee Chapel School, The Knares, every Wednesday from 6.30pm – 8.00pm during school terms. We break up for school holidays. If in doubt – no school then no Cubs! Sometimes we start earlier or finish later if we have a special event or a guest. Sometimes we go out for evenings, days, weekends or even weeks. We will tell you about these in advance.

Prospective Cubs come along for two or three weeks to see if they enjoy it – old clothes are fine and there is nothing to pay for the first session.  We will play lots of games, generally with a theme … Cubs might not notice but they will learn one or two things each time we play ….. how to track in the woods, crack a code or find out something about another country.  After a few weeks or so Cubs are invested. This will be just before the end of the meeting and Parent / Carers are welcome to come along to watch – it’s a good photo op! Cubs repeat the Cub law after Akela and make a very important promise.  Parents get lots of badges to sew onto the new uniform as a special treat!

  

Cubs, more properly known as Cub Scouts, are young people aged between 8 and 10 ¹/₂ years old. They meet in “Packs” up to 36 strong. There are, at the last count over 230,000 Cubs in Britain. Cub Packs are split up into small “teams” called sixes – containing around 6 cubs. An older Cub leads the team called the “Sixer”. They are helped by a “Seconder”. Scouting logic strikes again! Sixes are named after colours, Yellow, Green, Blue and Red. Cubs fasten their neckers with a woggle in their six colour.

Cubs follow a “training programme”. This is actually a major confidence trick. It’s cunningly put together so that the eight to nearly eleven-year-olds can be challenged and stimulated to the best of their ability. The trick is that the young people think it’s simply to give them a good time! As well as the main programme, there are some exciting “bolt-on” goodies, such as the Challenges and dozens and dozens of Activity Badges, ranging from Athlete to World Conservation. David Bellamy reckons that he became interested in nature through Cubs and the current Astronomer Royal claims that he owes his career to learning about stars as a Cub Scout.

Cub scouting, by tradition, has adapted some of the ideas from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” and the subsequent Disney film. You will find that the Leaders are known to the youngsters by the names of the animals in the book. Do not be surprised when your youngster runs in and says, “Shere Khan says, “Akela says…” or “King Louie says…”  When they reach around 10 ¹/₂, Cubs are usually ready to “move up” to the next Section – Scouts. But we can be flexible and try to move Cubs up in groups so no one has to move up on their own.

 

Think of it as being ‘sworn in’. We like our little ceremonies – and it means a lot to the Cubs too! After 3 or 4 weeks Cubs will be invested and Akela will liaise with parents about acquiring a uniform and a suitable date. The investiture will usually be just before the end of a Cub meeting and family members can come along to watch. Cubs repeat the Cub law after Akela and make a very important promise. Parents get lots of badges to sew onto the new uniform as a special treat! There will be lots of other badges to sew on in future!

 

The Cub uniform consists of:

A dark green sweat shirt and group scarf (black and gold)

Woggle to secure the necker and all badges – we provide at investiture

Group activity T shirt – The group T shirt can be worn for camps and activities or outings when uniform is not required.  It is a green T shirt, screen printed with the international Scout emblem in yellow and endorsed with 8^th Basildon Scout Group.  The cost is £8 for Cubs.

Trousers – We are fairly easy on leg wear.  Pack nights – dark blue jog bottoms or leggings (dark blue shorts in hot weather) but be prepared to have them come home dirty, so school trousers are not a good idea!  Smart trousers, black or grey for certain activities such as Remembrance and St. Georges Day Parades – school trousers and shoes will do fine for these occasions. You can purchase blue Cub activity trousers, Cub fleeces and blue baseball caps from Scout Shops as (very nice) optional extras, but these are not a requirement.

Who will be looking after my child? – The leaders

The Pack and its activities are supervised and organised by a team of “Cub Scout Leaders”. These are all trained unpaid volunteers who have lives and commitments outside Scouting.

Once or twice a year there is an optional weekend camp. We always have a theme and Cubs may find themselves as a pirate looking for treasure on Captain Blood’s Island, or as a knight battling to defend a castle with a sword and shield they have just made – with a medieval feast to follow!

We have all our own camping equipment. Camps often run from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon and are usually quite local.  There will always be a parents briefing before hand to tell everyone exactly what we will be doing and answer any questions or concerns.

Subscriptions are paid weekly at £3.50 . This covers our running costs and central HQ costs as well as insurance when on activities or visits. It also covers most of our equipment costs – although we have to do some additional fundraising for these too.