Welcome to the adventure!

Important information for new Beavers and Parents.

Welcome to the 28th Glasgow (Giffnock) Scout Group.

This page has important information for the parents of new Beavers joining us for the next term.
Please take the time to read the following information, and follow the steps to using OSM.

Beaver Scouts is the first and youngest section at the 28th.
As a Beaver, your child will join their Colony in exploring the outdoors, delving into creative crafts, discovering their community, playing games and making friends.
After a few weeks of attending Beaver Scouts, your child will be ‘invested’. This is when they promise to do their best and help others. Find the various versions of the Beaver Scout Promise below.
Scouting opens the eyes of young people to a world of extraordinary possibilities.

Using OSM

Steps for new parents to enter important information

Joining Monday Beavers

Monday Beavers meets from 18:30 – 19:30. Generally, when East Renfrewshire schools are open, Beavers will be on (but the leaders will keep you right)!

You can contact the Monday Beavers team by email: mondaybeavers@giffnockscouts.org.uk
Please ensure that you have this email address in your safe sender’s list so that you receive emails about arrangements for Beaver meetings, including details of any late changes.

Details about the first night will be sent out in advance.

Please ensure Beavers arrive on time, bring their own water bottle, and are dressed appropriately for active activities (don’t worry about uniform for the first few weeks).

Joining Friday Beavers

Friday Beavers meets from 18:30 – 19:30. Generally, when East Renfrewshire schools are open, Beavers will be on (but the leaders will keep you right)!

You can contact the Friday Beavers team by email: fridaybeavers@giffnockscouts.org.uk
Please ensure that you have this email address in your safe sender’s list so that you receive emails about arrangements for Beaver meetings, including details of any late changes.

Details about the first night will be sent out in advance.

Please ensure Beavers arrive on time, bring their own water bottle, and are dressed appropriately for active activities (don’t worry about uniform for the first few weeks).

What uniform do Beavers wear?

Beavers don’t need a uniform to join, but soon Beavers will start earning badges and need a place to put them! After a few weeks of being a Beaver, your leaders will tell you what you need.

The Beavers uniform consists of a blue sweatshirt with your badges sewn on and the 28th ‘neckie’ to represent our local group. There are lots of other optional accessories you can wear such as hats, hoodies, navy blue trousers or shorts, if you’d like to.

Please ensure that all items of uniform (and jackets etc) are labelled with your child’s name.

For meetings outdoors, please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately for the weather conditions, including, where appropriate, a fleece top, a waterproof jacket with hood, waterproof trousers, hat, gloves and wellies or waterproof boots.

Annual Subscription

Of the annual subscription, we have to pass on around £45 per head in membership fees to scout headquarters, funding the central services that they provide. The remaining balance is retained by the section to meet week-to- week running costs (including paying for things like badges, equipment, and programme materials, etc). None of the subscription goes towards the costs involved in running and maintaining the Scout Hall. That costs an extra £90 or so per head per year.

We rely on fundraising to raise that sum and, as you know, we expect every family to assist with that.

Parent involvement

Our Scout Group is run entirely by volunteers. Each week leaders give up some of their time to plan and run weekly meetings for Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers. As well as this, there are a large number of volunteers who help behind the scenes to ensure that the Group runs smoothly.
In order to continue providing a full and varied programme of activities for our young people, we need your help!

We need additional volunteers to join our team – either working directly with young people, or behind-the-scenes. Even if you can only spare an hour a month, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to chat with you about how you could help.

Stay in the loop

Website & social media
Make sure to keep an eye on our group website for information about what’s happening in the group, and for useful resources for our members and parents.

Social media

Make sure to follow @GiffnockScouts on social media for updates & photos of what we get up to!

Newsletter

The Group issues 3 Group Newsletters each year, These contain details of forthcoming events and reports on what the Beavers and other sections have been up to. The sections take photos of activities for display at the Registration Nights in August and for use in the Newsletters, the Group website and other media. If you have any concerns about this, please speak to the Section Leader.

Moving to cubs

Your child will normally progress from Beavers to Cubs (which meet on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening) around the time of his/her 8 th birthday. Further information will be provided nearer the time.

Further information

For further information about what your child can expect as a Beaver, please see the Parents’ Guide to Beaver Scouts:

Promises and ceremonies

As well as enjoying plenty of adventures, being a Beaver is about exploring who you are and what you stand for. These are big ideas, and when you join the Colony, you’ll start thinking about them by making a promise. A promise is a set of words that mean something to you, which you try to follow everyday.

Making the promise is a big celebration within the Colony. Every time a new Beaver decides to join, they chat through their promise with their leader before saying it out loud in front of their fellow Beavers. Family and friends might come along to see this, too. Doing this is called being ‘invested’ into Beavers, and it usually takes place once you’ve had a few weeks to settle in.

Everyone is unique but there are some things all Beavers agree on – such as treating everyone with kindness and promising to do their best. Depending on their own beliefs, they might also promise to live by their faith.

Beavers choose the promise that best suits them. 

For Christians, Jews and Sikhs

I promise to do my best
To be kind and helpful
And to love God.

For Hindus and Buddhists

I promise to do my best
to be kind and helpful
and to love my Dharma.

For humanists, atheists and those with no defined faith

I promise to do my best
to be kind and helpful
and to love our world.

For Muslims

I promise to do my best
to be kind and helpful
and to love Allah.

Visit The Glasgow Scout Shop online for all the accessories and uniform you could need!

All of our leaders are trained volunteers, working to make sure Scouting is safe and open to all. Some lead Beavers week in and week out.

Others help when they can or drop in to share their skills. No matter how much time you have to spare, find out about volunteering on your own terms.