Cubs Award Scheme
In the Cub Section you get to plan your own adventures and programme, focusing on the outdoors.
You can challenge yourself to learn new skills while working in small teams with supporting adults.
You will learn life-long skills, make new friends and have FUN!
The Cub achievement pathways help you to plan your Scouting experiences around lots of different activities.
While badges are fun to earn, it’s important to remember that they recognise your progression, they aren’t the goal itself. Having fun and taking part in activities is the most important part!
Membership Badge
Before you are invested into Cubs, you will need to complete your Membership
Badge. Your Kaiārahi and other Cubs will help you with this.
There are three main parts to this:
- Introduction to Scouting
- Introduction to Cubs
- Safe From Harm
Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards
The Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards recognise your progression through the programme
To complete these awards, you will need to Participate, Assist, and Lead a number of activities from each of the programme Areas
At the end of each award, you will also take part in a reflection.
Rātā Cub Award
The highest award you can earn as a Cub is the Rātā Cub Award. This is the Capstone Award for the Cubs section.
To achieve the Rātā Cub Award you will need to:
- Achieve your Gold Cub Award
- Complete 10 Adventure Skills progressions
- Complete 4 Better World projects across at least two different programmes
- Undertake a 4-hour Adventurous Journey
- Take part in 15 Community Engagement hours
- Complete a peer-led review of your time in Cubs
You can find more details about these challenges in your Cubs handbook.
The Adventure Skills
The Adventure Skills are your pathway to adventure. They are designed to help you gain the skills you need to participate in, assist with, and lead adventurous experiences
The Adventure Skills are designed so that you can work on them as you move through your Scouting journey. Instead of being attached to a section, you can complete any level of any Adventure Skill in any section, as long as you have completed the previous levels of that Skill
Each Skill has 9 Levels, each with a set of competencies to complete that build on the level before it
Currently there are 7 Adventure Skills. They are:
You can be assessed by your Kaiārahi, another member of Scouting who is two or more levels above you in the Skill, or any other competent person
Once you reach level 3, you can start to mark off others who are working at level 1!
To complete your Rātā Cub Award, you will need to complete 10 Adventure Skills progressions during your time in Cubs.
A progression is gaining a new level in a Skill. It’s up to you if you want your progressions to be across a lot of different Skills, or mostly in just a few of them
You can find all the requirements for each of the Adventure Skills in the Adventure Skills Handbook. This is also where you can record your Adventure Skills achievements, or you can do this in Mahi Tahi
When you finish an Adventure Skill level, please record it.
Better World
Better World helps you live out your Scout Promise by contributing to your community, country, and world
There are 3 parts to every Better World Programme:
Experience: Learn about an issue that is interesting to you. Find out about how it affects people, and what you can do to help
Act: Participate in, Assist with, or Lead a project that helps with the issue you’ve been learning about. Remember to Plan, Do, Review every part of your project
Share: Share what you have done with others, and let them know how they can get involved
There are 8 Better World Programmes. They are:
You can complete a Better World project with your Cub Section, by yourself, or with another group.
To complete your Rātā Cub Award, you will need to complete 4 Better World projects in at least 2 different programmes.
You can find specific programme requirements and resources in the Better World Handbook, or in the member resources portion of the SCOUTS New Zealand website.
Better World works with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is a set of 17 goals for the world that were agreed upon by world leaders in 2015 to make the world a better place for everyone.