Squirrels – 4 & 5 years

Discover Squirrels

The Scout Association have recently introduced a new section for 4 and 5 year olds.  It’s called Squirrel Scouts, and 25th Braid is delighted to have formed one of the first Squirrel sections in Edinburgh.

The group meets on Thursday evenings between 4.30pm and 5.30 pm.  Some meetings are held indoors and others outside in the local area.

Information for Squirrels

What will I do at Squirrels?

• Some weeks we’ll meet inside, lots of weeks we’ll be outside.
• We’ll play games, listen to stories, sing songs, try new things and have fun!
• All Squirrels will also wear a uniform and make a promise.  A promise is a set of words that mean something to you.
• At Squirrels you’ll also earn badges that will go on your uniform.

Information for parents

How has the Squirrel programme been developed?

The new Squirrel Scout programme has been developed in partnership with early years experts and extensively trialled by Scout groups across the UK. Squirrels will get to experience a fantastic range of age-appropriate but challenging activities.  This will include an introduction to traditional Scout skills, the opportunity to earn badges which show their effort and achievement and most importantly have lots of fun!

How are Squirrels organised?

Squirrels are part of a group known as a Drey.  For us, this will be made up of up to 12 young people aged 4 to 6, led by trained adult volunteers who plan exciting programmes of activities and keep everyone safe.

Helping our adult leaders to manage the Squirrel Drey on a weekly basis is a Young Leader. These are young people aged 14 to 18, members of local Explorer Scout Units, who are working towards their Duke of Edinburgh or Chief Scout’s Awards and come along to the Squirrels meetings to help run activities. They are a fantastic support to the adult leaders and can be identified by their darker brown uniform shirts.

As Squirrels are younger, we will also be asking parents to get involved and support their child as they start their journey in the Scouting family.

What should my child wear?

In the first couple of sessions children (and parents!) will be taking part in lots of activities.  Young people should just wear something they feel comfortable in. Once they’ve had time to settle in, you’ll be asked to buy a uniform jumper to wear during meetings.

You can buy jumpers from the Scout store.

Promises and ceremonies

The first few weeks after a child joins Squirrels is about finding out if it is right for them.  As part of that, Squirrels will make a promise as part of an investiture ceremony.  They will have chatted about the promise with a leader in advance.  Squirrels will use the same promise that they’ll make again as a Beaver.  There are multiple versions and you can decide which is right for your family.

We will present Squirrels with the Group neckerchief (scarf) of red and grey and the cloth badges that demonstrate that they are a member of the 25th Braid Scout Group when they are invested.

Joining Squirrels

As Squirrels is a relatively new section for 25th Braid, we’ll be first looking at young people currently on our waiting list for Beavers.  Children can join the waiting list at any age and the longer their name is on the list, the higher up the list they will be. We have a written policy on offering places and a copy can be requested by contacting the Group Scout Leader or Waiting List Co-ordinator.

We will be offering any family interested in Squirrels the opportunity to talk to one of our Squirrels leaders, so they can make a decision as to whether Squirrels will be right for their child, at this point in time.