Howden Scouts

For 4-5 year old girls and boys, 1st Howden Squirrels meet on Thursdays at 16.45 – 17.45 during term-time, and it costs £20 per half-term.

We also have regular events. Some of these might be during our usual weekly sessions, like visits from the fire brigade, we might venture further afield like heading to the marsh for pond dipping or to the Minster. Sometimes we have events outside of our weekly sessions like sleepovers at the Scout Hut or St George’s Day Parade with the other sections.

Steve

Squirrels is our newest section, starting in January 2022, and Steve (who is a squirrel, obviously), is our mascot.

From meeting our wonderful leaders to what to wear, we’ve got you covered.

Uniform

Squirrels uniform is a red jumper, but we’d recommend giving the first few weeks a go before investing in a new one. Comfy bottoms like joggers or shorts (depending on the weather) are a must, and your child must be able to get anything you send them in dirty. They’re here to have fun, and it’s no fun looking after their best trousers.

Once they’ve been a Squirrel a while, they’ll get invested. This means that they’ll be provided with a necker (purple and white, 1st Howden colours), and a woggle (the colour of which will depend on the group they’re in), and they’ll make their promise. This is usually when the badges start piling up too…

Badges

There’s a LOT of badges that your child can earn across their lifetime as a Scout, and it all starts here. Your child will work towards them each week, and sometimes we’ll ask you to work towards them at home too.

Badges are divided into core, challenge, activity, and staged badges, plus they get ones for special occasions too, like the Coronation. Then there are camp blanket badges, which don’t go on their uniform but can be nice reminders of nights away and other achievements.

Don’t worry about where badges go on the uniform. When your child starts coming to Squirrels, you will get a login for Online Scout Manager (OSM), and it has a handy tailored image guide showing you exactly where to put them.

Our leaders

Lala

Hathi

Our leaders work hard to plan engaging sessions for the children. Want to help? We’d love to hear from you!

Events

The weekly programme is tailored to the group, so if there are badges we’re working towards, we’ll do activities that will earn us those badges.

You’ll get plenty of notice for events outside of the usual weekly sessions, and it’s up to you if you want your child to be involved. There is sometimes a cost involved with trips and events. Notifications will be sent through Online Scout Manager, and you just need to visit the portal to let us know whether you want your child to attend or not.

Here's what we got up to last year in Squirrels.