Beaver Leaders

[Outandover]

I have a question for Beaver Leaders/staff - how do you find the behaviour generally with the children each week?

I have been a parent volunteer for about 15 months now and can’t wait to leave when my DS starts Cubs soon. I am just appalled at the behaviour of some children.

Obviously I am not privy to any underlying medical reason for difficult/wild behaviour but out of the 24 children there is always a cohort of 6-7 who simply don’t listen, are unable to follow instructions without constant supervision, run around like they are on a race track or roll on the floor, play fight, talk over the staff, continuously poke the other children for a reaction at circle time etc. The list goes on. The Leader and Assistant Leaders seem to spend most of their time managing behaviour and some week’s these children almost ruin it for the others. The two children who are the worst behaved clearly egg each other on as occasionally when one of them isn’t there the other is fairly well behaved.

Is this usual? Do you ever speak to parents? There is no way I am volunteering at Cubs except to be on the parent rota.

Disclaimer: I am aware that some children may have underlying reasons for their behaviour but some are just clearly little shits.

If they don't listen/aren't being safe etc they get a gentle warning, if they continue then they're pulled aside briefly and spoken to about behaviour expectations.

We check whether they need a sensory break or if they would like to sit out for a moment. The line in the sand is that if you don't behave appropriately (safely and mostly sensibly, they're 6/7 year old boys after all) then we'll call your grown up to come fetch you.

If we needed to speak to their grown up then we would. If they're misbehaving then that suggests that they're not enjoying the group and it's not an appropriate setting for them. If they're ruining it for other children long term then they'd have their place removed.

We have two who tend to to gravitate to each other to cause mischief and we generally pair them with another beaver in games and redirect with a leader in activities. We try to balance the physical games with focused activities.

We are also very careful who we give a place to. I have three on my (lengthy) waiting list who won't get a place because of past experience of their behaviour/parents behaviour.

I'm a volunteer. I'm giving up my time and energy for free. I'm not there to deal with extremes of bad behaviour week in week out. It's an extracurricular activity, they are not entitled to a place if they are badly behaved. We also have to balance the needs of the children who require accommodations for their sensory needs/ASD/ADHD.

24 children sounds like far too many for the leaders to handle. Especially if you have 6/7 who are testing boundaries.

We don't have behaviour like that - although the main leader is a teacher so she's quite strict with them! But we have had difficult kids in the past. Sounds hard though if there's 6/7. We normally split up the perpetrators so they're in different lodges to try and dampen it down.

No experience of this but saw a good opportunity to jump in and say how awesome Beaver leaders are!!

They put so much energy into it, they work so many hours and all as volunteers.

So if you're a Beaver leader coming on to help answer the OP... THANK YOU 🙏

24 sounds too many. I'm an assistant leader and we have limited our group to 12 ( would go to 15 at max) and they are all quite well behaved as far as that age group go!

My DP is a leader, he's was scouts, now explorers, he says the same even with the older kids, they are constantly talking/messing about or on their phones, never listen, I honestly don't know why he bothers anymore, it's sounds so stressful, not a way I would like to spend my evening after a long day at work.

I'm a cub leader, and occasionally help out at our beaver colony.

I think the beaver leaders manage behaviour really well - 6 to 8 year old kids have a tendency to get a bit over excited, and the beaver leaders call a halt to proceedings if this is happening, and let the group calm down before carrying on.

The beavers write their own code of conduct each term and agree to follow it.
If they don't, then the leaders will pull them out and they sit to the side until behaviour calms. They are then expected to apologise if they've been mean or hurt another beaver or leader.

They put beavers who don't behave together into different activity groups.

They also keep the colony small - maximum of 16 - which seems to help.

Any bad behaviour is dealt with promptly and consistently, which means the beavers know where they stand, and what the consequences are.

My cub pack has 28 cubs, and we follow similar rules/consequences, but to be fair, we don't often have to use consequences, as they are very well behaved on the whole, just a bit noisy and chatty !

My DS ended up leaving Beavers as he said that they basically didn't do anything every week, as the leaders spent most of the session sorting out the behaviour of a few boys in the group. So they never got chance to do any of the activities fully.
This was about 4 years ago, so pre lockdown. So no excuses about lockdown affecting interaction with others etc.
Unfortunately some kids are just little shits

Assistant Beaver Leader here.

The majority of them listen but there is usually a couple who don't listen which then affects the others. I do think some parents would be surprised at how badly their children can behave.

Although on the flip side I did have a parent last week who was concerned that her child may be distracted and disruptive as the school had spoken to her about his behaviour. This child is always extremely well behaved during the sessions and very quiet, she was most surprised.

We have a large hall with 16 Beavers and they like the open space and being able to run around. I do loose my voice every week just from having to speak loudly to make myself hear in the large hall and over them!

Thanks all for your insight. I’ve never seen or heard the Leader and two Assistant Leaders implement any kind of behaviour strategy - it’s literally telling them off verbally and that’s it. They’ve all been involved in Scouting for many, many years.

I do wonder now why they take so many (24) when other posters are saying around 16. I would have thought there would be a set number nationwide but 16 seems far more manageable for that age group.

I see one of the worst troublemakers with his childminder daily and he seems so calm and well-behaved and I thought if only your parents/childminder knew what you were like at Beavers 😞

I see one of the worst troublemakers with his childminder daily and he seems so calm and well-behaved and I thought if only your parents/childminder knew what you were like at Beavers

The leaders should tell the parents. My DS never gave me a moments trouble at home or at school, he really was a thoughtful and helpful child, with no hint of bad behaviour. I started as an assistant leader at cubs when my DS had been there for about a year, and his behaviour there also seemed very good. However, one day, the cub leader asked me if I thought my DS was behaving better now that I was attending. I asked what he meant, and he told me that my DS' behaviour had been terrible, probably the worst in the pack, before I started helping out. I was horrified, and really wish the leader had told me about it before, so I could have dealt with it.

I parent volunteered once. Yes there were 1 or 2 children on that night who were a little restless. Overall, they all listened.

Thank you for volunteering.

Hope it gets better

Cubs rather Beavers...
They know if they don't listen they don't get to do the fun stuff.
My "job" is making activities accessible for those with additional needs so I know which ones to aim for to stop misbehaviour before it happens in different scenarios.
I think its easier to that as a "uniformed" leader though as I know what the additional needs are (from autism to physical to dyslexia... anything really!)