YouShape badge battle
You’ll need
- A4 paper
- Pens or pencils
- Copies of the badges and awards, as well as the requirements
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.
Running this activity
- Give each group big sheet of paper, pens, and a copy of the Badges and Awards book. You could also use printed badges and requirements.
- Someone in each group should lead their group as they talk about which badges they would like to work on. They should think about and write down the reasons they would like to do each badge, as well as any ideas of what they could do to achieve it.
- When everyone’s had time to discuss the badges, each group should agree on their favourite badge to do.
- Next, bring together a panel of judges – this could include adult volunteers, young leaders, or parents and carers.
- Each group must take it in turns to present and try to persuade the panel that their top choice badge is the best idea. They could talk about the reasons they think the group should do it, and any ideas they have about how they could achieve it. You may wish to give each group some time to make a presentation.
- At the end, anyone on the panel or another group could ask questions.
- After each presentation, each person on the panel should give it a score between one and five stars.
- The badge with the most stars is the winner and can be planned into the programme as soon as possible.
Reflection
This activity was a great opportunity to be a leader. Did you make sure everyone felt important, and was heard? Were you well organised as a group? Did anyone do anything really helpful? How did you make a plan for your presentation? Did different people have different strengths and roles in your group?
This activity also needed you to communicate. Was it easy to tell the others which badges you were interested in? Was it easy to understand other people’s opinions? How did you talk to each other when you were making decisions? How did you communicate with the panel of judges?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Active games
The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
To make this activity more active, you could have a copy of each badge title. Everyone could move around until the whistle is blown, and then stand by their favourite idea. The badge with the least people stood by it is knocked out on each round, until one remains.
- No one has to present if they don’t want to – they can still help their group prepare the presentation.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
