Promoting Positive Behaviour

The Purpose of Scouting

Scouting aims to equip young people with the skills for life. To help them:

• Take responsibility for themselves;
• Gain independence and build confidence;
• Respect themselves and others;
• Take part in enjoyable and engaging activities; and
• Have a positive impact on society.

As volunteers we enjoy offering our time, skills and passion for the outdoors to help the Scouts achieve these aims.

Scouts also take part in more challenging activities such as:

• axe and knife skills
• building/cooking over open fires; and
• short expeditions.

These activities require a more mature approach and as leaders our expectations are that the scouts will, with some help, approach the activities in this way – taking responsibility for their actions and listening to instructions and guidance. The scouts should also expect to be able to learn these new skills in an enjoyable and safe environment. Similarly, as parents you expect Scouting to provide your young person with experiences that help them gain their independence and confidence and other life skills through challenging but safe activities. 

Be Safe, be kind

To help scouts remember how they should approach things we have a simple message and this is something we remind them of regularly :

This easy to remember message summarises our code of conduct, that is displayed on our noticeboard in church. The code of conduct was created and is maintained by the scouts themselves and along with our “Be Safe, be Kind” message we use this to promote a culture of positive behaviour within the troop.

Parental Support

Our aim is that all Scouts reach their full potential during their time with us and hope that the Code of Conduct will help foster an environment where this can be achieved. We hope that we can rely on your support in promoting positive behaviour within the Troop. You can help us to do this by:

• Ensuring your child arrives on time and in uniform
• Supporting and working with the leaders to encourage good behaviour
• Working with the leaders to support your child’s particular needs

If you have any concerns regarding behaviour we would invite you discuss these with us. This can be done in person before or after meetings or by using the “Email Leaders” button.

Traffic Light System

Our “Be safe, be kind” message and the code of conduct form part of our “traffic light” system for promoting positive behaviour. It’s also our aim is that by reinforcing the “Be safe, be kind” message we will not need to use the yellow and red lights.

If we notice that behaviour falls outside of the Code of Conduct we will remind the scouts of the “Be safe, be kind” message, ask them to reflect on their actions and give them the opportunity to change.

If, during a meeting or an event, the scouts behaviour continues to fall short of expectations despite reminders they they will be issued with a Yellow warning.

If there is no improvement in behaviour then the scouts will be issued with a second yellow warning.

A red warning would be issued after 2 yellow warnings for behaviour which persistently falls below expectations.

A red warning would also be issued immediately where behaviour represents a safety risk to the individual or other members of the troop.

Scouts would also be asked to reflect on their behaviour by missing a week.