The Beaver Colony meets every Monday evening at the Scout Headquarters from 5:30pm to 6:30pm unless otherwise stated on the programme.
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The Beaver Colony is for boys and girls from 6 – 8 years old. The "Beavers" section of Scouting was officially launched by The Scout Association in the UK in 1986, though it had been trialled since 1982.
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Its origins can be traced back to a program started in Northern Ireland in 1963, which was renamed "Beavers" in 1966. The Beaver Colony was the foundation of scouts until the introduction of Squirrels in 2020 and was where children are brought into the scouting background and develop their scouting skills, hoping to use them when they ‘swim up’ to Cubs and eventually move on to Scouts.
Adventurous activities
The Beaver Colony at the 82nd relish in a fun filled programme. This consists of arts and crafts, games, external visitors (e.g. hearing dogs) and plenty of outdoor activities. All the activities contribute to the badges available for the Beaver scouts. The Beavers work towards their badges in hope to achieve the Chief Scout Bronze Award. These badges can be worked on Beaver nights or at home in the children’s spare time.
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Working together
The 82nd Beaver group is made up of a selection of children from different schools in the local and wider area. This helps the younger children to develop new friendships outside of the school environment.
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The Beaver Colony work together to help each other achieve badges as well as social skills. The Beavers are often joined by the Cub Pack and the Scout Troop on ‘joint nights’ this helps to give the children an idea of the activities they will take part in as they progress through to the older sections of the group as well as helping them to form friendships with the rest of the group and experiencing new activities.
Nights away
Beavers have the opportunity to take part in the fun and excitement of camps and sleepovers. This is often the first time that the young people have spent a night away from home so it’s a real adventure for them.
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Even if they do not want to experience the nights away opportunities, they can still attend most activities as day visitors, so they don’t miss out.