Where
West Thorpe Methodist Scout Group, West Thorpe Methodist Church, Dringhouses, York YO24 2PN
When
Monday evenings in term time, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, plus setting up and clearing away either side. There are occasional events on other days, and Beavers camp at the District campsite each November.
As Team Leader you would also spend some time planning ahead of the week. How much is up to you, and there are people to plan it with.
Role description
Beavers are six, seven and eight year olds. At West Thorpe they meet on a Monday evening at the Methodist Church, and the Colony has a Team Member who joined recently. Tom, who leads the Group, is covering the section in the meantime. This is a section that runs, with a handover waiting, rather than something you would start from nothing.
The job is to run Beavers. Deciding what happens on a Monday, planning it with the rest of the team, and being the person the Colony belongs to.
There is one thing about this role worth saying plainly, because it is unusual. West Thorpe are not looking for somebody to keep things exactly as they are. In their own words, they have been waiting for someone to come in and say, I want to do this, and this. If you turn up with your own ideas, including ones that cut across how they have done it before, that is what they are hoping for. You would be backed rather than managed.
You would not be on your own. There is a Team Member at Beavers, leaders from across the Group come and help, and Tom and Joe run the Group between them. Most Team Leaders in Scouting start by helping in a section and grow into it, so if you would rather begin as a Team Member and see how it feels, say so and that is fine.
West Thorpe has been going since April 1980, so forty-six years. It runs every section, Squirrels through to Scouts, and an informal young leaders group for the ones who did not want to move on. Sections run somewhere between ten and twenty-four young people. Beavers and Cubs camp at Snowball every November. The Group necker is grey and maroon, chosen in 1980 because it was the only thing available at the time, and nobody has changed it since.
Most of the young people come from Woodthorpe Primary School, with others from Dringhouses and Foxwood.
Skills and behaviours needed for the role
You do not need to have been in Scouts, and you do not need to have worked with children. Four questions instead:
- Do you like six to eight year olds, noise and all?
- Can you give a Monday evening in term time, and a bit of time to plan?
- Have you got ideas of your own, or the appetite to come up with some?
- Will you turn up when you have said you will?
Four yeses and they would like to hear from you.
Will there be a DBS check?
Yes
What will the volunteer gain/benefit from
You start the same way every volunteer does. Two short online modules, safety and safeguarding, which can be done at home in an evening. A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, arranged and paid for. First aid training is available for you on a date that you can choose, It lasts three years. There is further learning for the Team Leader role, and it comes with support rather than a reading list.
The training is free to you. First aid and safeguarding are worth having whatever else you do. Running a section is like running a small organisation: planning, people, budgets, risk, and keeping twenty small children safe and interested for an hour. Tom, who leads the Group, puts it like this:
“Volunteering with West Thorpe has truly made me the confident person I am today. Without my experience leading young people through West Thorpe, I would likely be in a different profession.”
Tom Ibbott, Group Lead Volunteer
How to get involved
Email volunteer@yorkscouts.org.uk and say you are interested in Beavers at West Thorpe. Or come along one Monday, watch an hour, and talk about it afterwards. Nobody signs anything on a first visit.
Closing date
30 November 2026
