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Explorers starter programme

To get you started with your Explorers meetings, we’ve put together a ready-made programme that you can run for 12 weeks (a full term). 

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To get you started with your Explorers meetings, we’ve put together a ready-made programme that you can run for 12 weeks (a full term).  

The programme sets out 12 sessions. Each session includes a suggested opening and closing ceremony, a game, and an activity to get everyone involved.  You can click on these links to discover more detailed information to support your delivery of the session:  

  • What you’ll need to do the activity (e.g. equipment, resources and space)  
  • Instructions on how to do the activity  
  • What badge requirements it covers  
  • A reflection activity  
  • What safety considerations are needed for the activity  
  • How the activity can be made more challenging  
  • How the activity can be made accessible  

Your Unit will explore different aspects of the Explorers programme. They’ll get to know each other, gain new skills and try a range of different activities.  

Remember to practice the Scout Promise and Scout sign every time you meet, so your Explorers can be invested and get their Membership Award.  

Every Unit is unique, and it’s important you adapt the structure of your session to make it work for everyone. The sessions vary from 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours – feel free to adapt the sessions to work for the length of your meeting. 

Most people find that a structure works well when it gives young people the chance to:   

  • Start with an opening ceremony.
  • Get stuck into an activity - this makes up the bulk of your session.
  • Play a game or two.
  • End with a closing ceremony.

The Explorer programme encourages young people to plan and run a number of the sessions themselves. The Unit will have the opportunity to plan and run two sessions during the 12-week starter programme. Alternative sessions have been put together if the Explorers are not yet comfortable planning and running their own sessions. Top tips have been included to help leaders identify where Explorers can get involved in running their sessions. 

Useful information to help with the starter programme:

To watch in full screen, double click the video

Use the activity finder

To watch in full screen, double click the video

Use the Programme Planning Tool

Jump into your first term of Explorers

This session is all about introducing Explorers! Use these games to get to know each other and introduce Explorers to the young people. 

This week is all about getting to know each other so while taking part in the activities take some time to get to know the Explorers, in ‘Deal or No Deal’ encourage the Explorers to share a bit about themselves, while building their best bridge allow time for discussion. 

This session is introducing the Explorers to their first badge, the Chef badge. We will be combining this badge with the International badge to explore an international dish with a Great British Bake Off theme in two weeks’ time. The Explorers will share their dishes in the cookery week and vote on the best dish. 

During this meeting complete all steps of the activity apart from the Culinary Creations section, they will complete this task in a couple of weeks’ time. Encourage the groups to choose a dish from another culture to tick off part of their International badge. (30 mins) 

They should all have an ingredient list, equipment list and recipe at the end of the session so that the leaders can get the ingredients ready for cooking in week 4. 

Chef badge ideas: 

To think about when planning their meals: 

  • What equipment is available for cooking?
  • Does anyone have any experience cooking a dish that they could share?
  • Are there any dietary requirements?
  • How can recipes be adapted to include foods from different food groups – if baking a cake could they add a vegetable such as courgette cake. 
  • Share the NHS Eatwell Guide to think about how they can make their meals/bakes healthier. 
  • Make sure there is enough for everyone to try a bit, so that they can compare and vote for the ultimate explorer cooking champion! 

In this session, Explorers will work towards: 

Explorers spend a large part of their programme outside so let’s get outside and have some fun! Find a space to explore and meet there for the session. We’ve included some Wide games for you to try out with the Explorers. 

Wide games 

Top tips for running the session 

  • Ask the Explorers if they know any games that they would like to play – make a note of these for the future. 
  • Get the Explorers to take it in turn running games, this will count towards their leadership badge.
  • Have a look through the list of games and decide on a few that you feel comfortable running, make sure you have all the equipment that you need before the session. 

Things to check: 

  • Make sure a risk assessment of the venue is completed and that it is shared with all adults. 
  • On arrival give clear instructions about where safe zones are and any restricted zones. 
  • Check out how to keep safe while away from the meeting place on the Scout website 

In this session, Explorers will work towards: 

It’s time to get cooking! The Explorers should have planned their dish in the “The Great Explorer Cook Off” planning session and be ready to cook in their groups. This week everyone should have the opportunity to cook their dishes and share them with the group. At the end of the session they should vote on the favourite to crown the Greatest Explorer Chef!  

Depending on equipment resources the Explorers can cook their dishes at the same time or the session may need to be split in half. We’ve provided an extra activity for those who are not cooking. 

Make sure everyone is aware of the food safety guidance before cooking. 

The Great Explorer Cook Off: 

  • Complete the Culinary Creations section of the activity 
  • After cooking everyone should come together to share their dishes and vote on the Greatest Explorer Chefs! Voting could be in secret or the Explorers could stand next to the dish that they think was the best. 

Alternative activity if the explorers need to take turns to cook their dish: 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

This week we’re getting to grips with teamwork. Think about what makes a great team while competing in these fun and challenging activities. 

  • Opening ceremony (10 mins) 
  • Play the magic carpet game (10 mins) 
  • Introducing Taskmaster – Ask everyone to get into small teams, encourage them to think of a name for their team, they could make a flag or a logo to celebrate their team. They will be competing in these teams during the Taskmaster challenge. (5 mins) 
  • Taskmaster (45 mins) 
  • Taskmaster reflection – reflect on what worked well in their teams and what didn’t go quite to plan. How could they work as a team more efficiently in the future and what was important for their team to succeed. We’ve put some ideas of what makes a good team below to help the discussion. (10 mins)
  • Closing ceremony (10 mins) 

 

What makes a good team? 

  • Communication & listening 
  • Sharing 
  • Learning from each other 
  • Working together 
  • Achievable goals 
  • Trust 
  • Celebrating success 
  • Creativity 

What makes a good leader? What type of leader are you? Explore the importance of leadership in this interactive session.  

If you have access to a device you could share the leadership talk with Captain Luke 

What makes a good leader? 

  1. Ask the Explorers to get into small teams, give each team a large piece of paper at least A3 size and some pens.  

  1. Ask everyone to think about and discuss in their teams which of the leadership styles best describes them as a leader.  

  1. When they have decided ask everyone to draw around their hand and write the leadership style in the middle of their handprint.  

  1. As a team encourage everyone to think about what makes a good leader and how different leadership styles might have different qualities (passive leaders – encourage people to grow by doing, organiser leaders – offer a good framework to their team) 

  1. Everyone should write leadership qualities around each of the handprints that they think match the leadership style. 

  1. Each of the explorer teams should feed back to the group and take some time to discuss how a leadership style affects their team. 

Leadership styles: 

  1. Informal/supportive - Using this style, the young people you're leading may not be aware that you're playing a leadership role. Being there to help and support is a form of leadership. 

  1. Formal/directive - This is a style that you would most associate with leading. It typically involves giving firm and clear instructions. 

  1. Democratic/team-based - This style involves leading a discussion and including everyone in the final decision. 

  1. Passive - This is the subtlest form of leadership. It involves knowing when to let go and when to let your youngsters take the lead. It's used when there is no risk to their safety and gives them the opportunity to make their own decisions. 

  1. Organiser - This is a planning style as much as a leadership style. You take responsibility for getting things organised in such a way that the outcome that you desire is achieved. 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

Part of being in Explorers is getting to plan and run your own programme, so this session is an opportunity for the Explorers to reflect on the sessions so far, think about what they would like to do in the future and have a go at planning activities and games for weeks 8 and 10. 

This session should be flexible on timings to allow the Explorers to have time to think about their experience so far and plan their evenings with some games mixed in to get everyone up and moving throughout. 

Explorer forum  

Ask everyone to get into small groups and discuss:  

  • What have they enjoyed about Explorers so far? 
  • What could have been done differently? 
  • Are there any activities that they would like to take part in at Explorers? 
  • Are there any games that they would like to play during Explorers? 

Each team should make a note of what they discuss, after the discussion each group should feed back to the whole group.  

The Explorer sessions! 

The leaders should explain to the Explorers that this is their opportunity to do what they want for an evening. Each group should be able to see the layout of a session, this could be by writing it on a flipchart, whiteboard or printing it out. Have a look at Creating your own activity for top tips on what to get the Explorers to consider during their planning session. 

Encourage the Explorers to come up with their own ideas for the sessions but if they do get stuck they could visit the activity finder, think about an adventurous activity or even try to earn some badges from our youngest section, the Squirrels. 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

Everyone should get outside and explore their local area. Explorers could take photos on smartphones or the leaders could provide cameras. Everyone should get involved and get outside with their team to find the most interesting letters. 

The session is 1hr 40 mins, this could be cut down by spending less time on the Alphabet photography.  

Encourage the Explorers to explore the local area together in small groups, they could look to find the whole alphabet or if you are pushed for time they could instead look to find the letters of the name of the group.  

Things to check: 

  • Make sure a risk assessment of the activity is completed and that it is shared with all adults. 
  • Explain where safe zones are and any restricted zones. 
  • Make sure everyone is aware of where leaders will be if they need help and that they have a way of contacting the leaders 
  • Be clear on timings 
  • Check out how to keep safe away from the meeting place on the Scout website 

This session is for the Explorers to run themselves, leaders should be available to help the session run smoothly, offer advice where needed and provide behavioural support.  

Important information: 

  • Explorers are still young people, so ultimately the leader in charge is responsible for the safety of everyone involved.  
  • The leader in charge should still make sure any risk assessments are completed in advance. 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

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Alternative session 

If the Explorers are not yet ready to plan their own session there is a readymade session below. Leaders could run the activity themselves or share the activity with the Explorers and ask them to identify areas that they could run themselves.  

Including the Explorers in the planning and running of the activity will help them build their confidence to run later sessions for themselves. 

Everything you need, nothing you don’t 

Explore this activity to find out what you need to pack for an expedition. 

It’s time to take part in an essential activity in Scouting cooking over a campfire. This session will share essential tips on building the perfect campfire for cooking some yummy treats! 

The activity is listed as taking 2 hours, you can cut this down by having firewood ready to use. 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

This session is for the Explorers to run themselves, leaders should be available to help the session run smoothly, offer advice where needed and provide behavioural support.  

Important information: 

  • Explorers are still young people so ultimately the leader in charge is responsible for the safety of everyone involved.  
  • The leader in charge should still make sure any risk assessments are completed in advance. 

In this session, the Explorers will work towards: 

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Alternative activity 

If the Explorers are not yet ready to plan their own session there is a readymade session below. Leaders could run the activity themselves or share the activity with the Explorers and ask them to identify areas that they could run themselves.  

Including the Explorers in the planning and running of the activity will help them build their confidence to run later sessions for themselves. 

Zipping along 

Work together to make your own zip wire to see what is the most aerodynamic shape. 

This session reflects on the last 12 weeks and encourages everyone to get involved in planning what they want Explorers to look like in the future. Leaders should make it clear that Explorers shape their programme and decide what they want to take part in and explore in the sessions each week. 

Next term! 

Everyone should think back to week 7 where the Explorers had an opportunity to plan two sessions. Now based on the mission statement that they created for their unit the Explorers should think about what they would like to do next.  

The leaders should explain to the Explorers that this is their opportunity to plan activities and games that they would like to work towards. Each group should be able to see the layout of a session, this could be by writing it on a flipchart, whiteboard or printing it out. Have a look at Creating your own activity for top tips on what to get the Explorers to consider during their planning session. 

It might also be helpful to share the Explorer badges and Awards to think about what they could work towards as a unit.  

Encourage the Explorers to come up with their own ideas about the sessions but if they do get stuck they could visit the activity finder, the outdoors in 24 materials, arrange an adventurous activity or even try to earn some badges from our youngest section the Squirrels