The beaver colony meets every Monday evening at the Scout Headquarters from 5:30pm to 6:30 pm unless otherwise stated on the programme.

 

The first section in the Scouting family is Beavers. The beaver colony is for boys and girls from 6 – 8. The beaver colony is the foundation of scouts, this is where the 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.

The first ‘pre – cub’ scheme was set up by a scout group in 1963 and was called ‘The Little Brothers’ as the scheme expanded it was titled ‘beavers’ in 1966 before officially being titled ‘beaver scouts; in 1974.

 

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.

 

Working together

The 82nd Beaver group is made up of a selection of children from different schools in the local area. This helps the younger children to develop new friendships outside of the school environment. 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 in 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

Due to their age the beavers have a limited choice on how many nights away they can spend with the scout group. However, they can attend most activities as day visitors so they don’t miss out. Beavers still 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.