Joining beavers/ scouts

[MorningBrew]

We have enquired to join Beavers locally for our dc.
I personally haven't done scouting etc. Not quite sure what exactly I'm signing him up for but he loves nature and I think of it as of forest school kind-of-thing... Is that right?

I thought it's secular though.

They've sent us a 'promise' he'll be expected to make later which says 'I promise to love God'.
That doesn't sit very well with us, as we are not religious but we do take our promises seriously.

Does anybody know if this is something that you can request to be changed for the individual child?

Hello - former Cub leader here

There is a secular version of the promise , as posted by pp - I made it!!!

Scouting groups, at all levels, are what the leaders make of them There are several (8? I think) facets of scouting, of which outdoor skills (or similar name) is one, and also "spiritual" or "faith" or some similar name. Our scout group is not attached to a church, although we do troop out to the village Remembrance service every November - that is about as much as we do in that respect. A lot of spiritual ness is more mindfulness, enjoying nature etc based.

In all my years as a Cub leader, I only ever had one child who didn't like it. There loads on the Scout Association website about what's it's about - read up! It's bern fabulous for my dc. DS started as a Beaver the moment he was 6 (no squirrels turn), now an Explorer, he's been all the way through, made friends, built confidence, leave skills.

We're not religious but dd believes that stuff. They do mention god a bit at school. So I wasn't bothered about her brownie promise

Every scout group is different (they are all separate charities, but governed by the Scout Association) and what your child will get to do can differ depending on all sorts of things (mainly on the quality of the volunteers, and other factors like how they are funded - some groups have the benefit of a hut that they rent out in the day - so no real money problems, others are in churches which tend to let the scouts use for very little and don't expect much back. Others have to manage their own building, with all the costs that go with it. I definitely would not worry about the promise thing, you can ask the leaders to refine it to be non-faith if you feel strongly about it, most of the kids don't care. It is over in 5 minutes anyway, and most of the leaders are not religious either. Scouting is good value, because everyone who runs it is a volunteer, but it needs more volunteers all the time to make it work, so please please volunteer to go on the rota. Another poster said "dump and run", I don't think they meant it badly, a lot of the young people are much better off without a parent fussing over them, but someone has to run it, and leaders that a prepared to do all the training, in their own time, for free, need that helping hand. It is one of the best things ever for young people, they gain loads of skills, whilst having fun, but anyone who views is as cheap childcare is wrong. Sorry, I will get off my soapbox now. Scout Leader for 12 years.