Get an introduction to outdoor activities, have the opportunity to be creative, explore your local community and experience the excitement of a Beaver Scout sleepover with your friends.
Here you can find all the information you’ll need from joining Beavers to moving on to Cubs.

What are Beavers?

Beavers are young people aged 6-8 in Scouting.

Every week they meet in Beaver Colonies to do lots of different fun activities and games to hop, skip and jump their way towards their top award – the Bronze Award.

Along the way they’ll earn heaps of badges that go on their uniform to show what they’ve done and what they still need to do. Sometimes they will even get special occasional badges if they were a Beaver when a big event in Scouting happens!

What’s different from Squirrels?

As your Squirrel moves on to Beavers, there will be a chance to earn the Moving On award. This means that you can stay in your normal routine for Squirrels but also try out Beavers at the same time. This normally takes about 3 weeks but can be longer or shorter. It gives your Squirrel a chance to meet the Beaver leaders and Colony before they move up.

When your Squirrel moves on to Beavers, there will be even more badges and awards to earn, more freedom to learn through activities and games, and even new opportunities like Beaver sleepovers!

Moving On can be very exciting but can also be sad as you leave your Squirrel Drey behind. It is okay to feel these things and it is very understandable. That’s why moving on is very flexible, if you feel your Squirrel might have additional needs or isn’t quite ready discuss this with your Squirrel leader.
Change can be very difficult so we try our hardest to facilitate anyone that needs extra help or is struggling.

What is the Uniform?

The Uniform is a must have for any Beaver so they have something to put their badges on and show off that they are a Beaver.
You usually only need a Beaver Sweatshirt as a minimum but check with your Beaver leaders as they might also ask you to buy a polo shirt or hat as well. You can often buy uniforms at local School Uniform shops or you can get it from the Official Scout Store. There are often resources like Logbooks and badges books and backpacks that you can use to show you are proud to be a Beaver – but these are optional.

Sometimes we find it hard to find money for extra costs or activities. As Scouts, we understand and think that money shouldn’t be a barrier of entry to Scouting. We have our own District Hardship policy but check with your Scout Group to find out about theirs. Scouts are a community and we think nobody should miss out the experiences and skills they gain from Scouting.

What is an investiture and do I need anything special?

An Investiture is a ceremony where someone makes their Scout Promise – some people call them Promise ceremonies. Each Group may do their investitures slightly differently but it is always a way to welcome someone into the Beaver colony – ask your leader for details on how they run their ceremony.

All you need is a uniform and to have a look through the Beaver Scout Promise. There are lots of different ways you can make your promise and it doesn’t matter what religion you are – everyone is welcome. If you want, you can try to memorise your promise for the investiture to really amaze your beaver leaders. Usually Parents are invited to watch so prepare your camera!

Lodges and Leadership

Within their Colony, Beavers are part of a Lodge. A lodge is a smaller group of Beavers that they may take part in activities and games together with.

Sometimes a Beaver Leader might decide someone can be a leader for their lodge. These are sometimes called Peer leaders, lodge leaders, junior leaders or lodge friends. This gives Beavers a chance to practise their leadership and teamwork skills where they can take on some extra responsibilities like helping new beavers or help running games.
This is often for just a term but after that they can proudly wear their leadership stripes to celebrate their hard work.