Scouts · ages 10½ to 14

Go further. Have more say.

Expeditions, water and fire — and a real hand in deciding what the Troop actually does with its year.

Ages
10½ to 14
Meets
Weekly in term time
What's new
Planning it themselves

What changes at this age

  • Going properly far

    Hiking with everything on your back, navigating in weather, pitching in the dark and cooking what you carried. There is a whole award for it, and it is one of nine.

  • Real responsibility

    Scouts lead small teams for real — planning a session, running it, and dealing with it when the plan meets the weather.

  • A genuine say

    Scouts have real influence over what the Troop does. They put ideas up, argue about them, and then have to make the winning one actually happen.

This is what it looks like

Adventurous activities need a permit, and the leader running one has been trained and assessed for it — so the risk assessment happened long before anybody heard about the trip.

  • Expeditions and hikes
  • Kayaking and sailing
  • Climbing and abseiling
  • Pioneering with rope and spar
  • Camping
  • Navigation
  • Community projects
  • Scouts in teal shirts and neckerchiefs charging across their meeting hall throwing paper snowballs

You're part of a Patrol

Scouts work in small teams that plan together, camp together and increasingly run things themselves. Scouts calls those teams Patrols.

  • A team that decides things

    A Patrol is not just who you share a tent with. It is who you plan with, argue with and answer to — and it gathers at the start and end of most evenings to sort out what happens next.

  • Scouts leading Scouts

    Each Patrol is led by one of the Scouts, with another as their second. They are given real jobs rather than titles, and they wear stripes for it.

  • Adults in the background

    Trained volunteers are there to make it possible and keep it safe, not to run it. Some Troops still call them Skip, short for Skipper; most now use first names.

“We help run it.”
Scouts plan and lead parts of their own programme, and it is genuinely theirs — including the bits that go wrong, which is where most of the learning turns out to be.

Things to work towards

As young people try new things, build skills and take on challenges, they earn badges and awards along the way. The highest award in Scouts is the Chief Scout's Gold Award.

It spans three and a half years and still means something on a personal statement long afterwards. Scouts choose their own badges on the way to it, from meteorology to mechanics to musician.

Before you start

The practical things worth knowing. If something here is not answered, ask the Group — they would far rather you did.

A teal green shirt or blouse with their badges sewn on, worn with the Group's neckerchief. Uniform trousers are optional and most Scouts keep them for awards evenings, wearing something ordinary with the shirt on a normal week.

Most young people go away two or three times a year, from a sleepover in the hut to a week under canvas. Every residential is run under a Nights Away Permit by a leader trained and assessed for it, and a kit list should come home at least two weeks before.

Groups charge subs to cover the hall, equipment and insurance, and every Group sets its own — so ask the one you are interested in. Camps and trips are costed separately, and a kit list and a price should reach you at least two weeks beforehand.

Wear something comfortable that can get messy — uniform can wait until they have settled in and have badges to sew on. Arrive a few minutes early so there is time to say hello, and expect them to be doing something within about five minutes of walking in.

If your young person needs additional support or adjustments, talk to the local Group. They can discuss what they need and what can be put in place. Tell us when you register an interest as well, and we will pass it on.

Often, yes. Waiting lists are normal across the district and a section can be full for a term or more. Register your interest and the district team will match you to the nearest Group with space, rather than leaving you to ring round.

Find Scouts in Newcastle

17 Groups in the district run Scouts. Availability changes constantly — the badge is what that Group last told us.

or search every Group on the district map

Browse all 17 Groups

Then: Explorers

At 14 they move up to an Explorer unit, which belongs to the district rather than to a Group — often a change of building as well as of section, and a big step up in how much they organise themselves.