Personal Journey
What we call Programme in Scouting covers three main elements.
The WHAT
The activities, camps, games, stories, songs, skills and everything else we do on our meeting night or our activities.
The HOW
All of the elements of the Scout Method together make it participative, exciting, meaningful and a quality experience. And the Programme Cycle, which gives us a process, helps everyone have a say in decision making.
The WHY
A series of educational markers that link directly to the Aim of our association help us to do what Scouting was designed to do: contribute to the growth of young people in all areas. The stepping stones of a Scouts Personal Journey in Scouting are the Learning Objectives.
Achieving our Aim
As part of a world Scout movement, our vision and our mission is to ‘improve society’ through the impact youth members will have on it. Our job as Scouters, while Scouts are with us, is to contribute to their development in each of the areas of growth, and the association aims expressed through the SPICES enable this in the following ways. They help to develop all the dimensions of a young person’s personality. They identify specific skills, knowledge, and attitudes to be developed/improved. They establish a framework by which each young person can set their own goals in accordance with their own abilities and individual character. They serve as a basis on which to assess personal growth.
Non Formal Education
The Scout Movement uses a structured framework (The Scout Method), and a framework of structured activities to achieve our aims. Young people learn through the Scout programme in a number of ways: Through their experiences of participation in activities. Through the experience acquired while taking on responsibilities within their programme. Through the personal interaction with members of their ‘Team’, as they participate in the adventure and challenge of Scouting.
Personal Challenges
The Learning Objectives for each Section is therefore a proposal which offers each individual Scout the opportunity to identify marker or milestones that plot their progress The interplay between the proposal and each young person’s aspirations never ceases: the proposal is always there, the challenges are always personal (perhaps unique to the individual) and the process is always directed at ensuring that each young person becomes everything he or she is able to be. To enable this to happen the Scouter must get to know the individual young people in their section. In the younger sections in particular it is only possible for a Scouter to know the individuals in one Team well enough to be able to help them with their Personal Journey. The Lodge Leader, Sixer, Patrol Leader or Crew Leader will have a role here also. The young person will take part in many Team and Section activities and they will need help to identify what they have gained from their individual experiences within (and outside) of the programme, what might challenge them most, what they may have achieved, etc.
