The Scout Law and Promise – A Scout is to be Trusted
As Scouts, we are asked to make the Scout Promise. This is quite a simple, but very powerful statement:
On my honour, I promise to do my best
To do my Duty to God and to the Queen
To help other people
And to keep the Scout Law.
It’s quite clever in that you are not promising to ALWAYS do the things in the promise, but that you will always TRY to do the things in the promise. It recognises that we will all fail sometimes but that we are going to do our best to meet up to the promise and law.
So, what is the Scout Law? The Law is a collection of seven simple statements, which collectively state what it is to be a Scout today. There have been some minor tweaks over the years, but these are little more than changes to the words and terms that we used to use. The Scout law is this:
- A Scout is to be trusted.
- A Scout is loyal.
- A Scout is friendly and considerate.
- A Scout belongs to the world-wide family of Scouts.
- A Scout has courage in all difficulties.
- A Scout makes good use of time and is careful of possessions and property.
- A Scout has self-respect and respect for others.
Before we invest new members into the Scout Group, we go through the Promise and Law and ensure that the new member understands what they are about to sign up for.
My intention is to take each of the Laws, and Sections of the Promise – and break them down to explain them.
So, let’s start with that first Scout Law:
A SCOUT IS TO BE TRUSTED
It’s no surprise that this is the first law. This, above all others, starts to define what a Scout is.
The word Trust comes from the Middle English truste, which may in turn have come from the Old Norse word traust, meaning confidence.
So what does it mean – to be trusted? Well, if I asked you to look after my big pile of jam doughnuts and not to eat any, and you (as a Scout) said that you would, then I should be happy in going off to get large bottles of fizzy drink to go with my doughnuts, knowing that when I got back I wouldn’t just have a pile of crumbs and someone sat by them with their mouth covered in sugar as they had stuffed them all in.
It also means that if I ask you if these trainers that I am about to buy look alright that when you say “they’re really good” then I can be happy that I am not going to look silly when I wear them next (and that people will also like the fact that they have flashing lights on the heels)
It also means that if I were to say “we’re going camping in Dorset, do you want to come?” and you say “I must check with my parents” that you will check with your parents (also, that you will tell us if you can come – but that’s the subject for another Law).
I would also add that “to be trusted” means that if you were to say “I can’t come out tonight I have to stay in and do my homework” that you are actually staying in – and not just going out with some other friends to a party.
So be trusted is quite a heavy responsibility to take on. As a Scout – can you be TRUSTED?
Reading 4 and 6 figure Grid References.
As UK Scouts, we make use of the Ordnance Survey Maps as a standard for navigation. So that we can get from one place to another, we use 6-figure “Grid References” to accurately identify the various points that we are talking about. Using these references, we can create a route going from point to point (if you have a GPS device, these are often referred to as “waymarkers”).
On an Ordnance Survey map is a grid of Blue Lines going vertically and horizontally (there are squiggly blue lines as well, but they’re rivers and waterways 
) Each of the blue lines usually has a number somewhere along its length. The following is a map of Lees Wood Campsite:
(Above: Lees wood map by Ordnance Survey. See end of blog for further acknowledgements)
Below is a simple grid diagram, with numbers along the top and the side. In one square I have an eye – and I want to give you the grid reference for that. Because it is such a big thing in the grid, I can give you a four figure grid reference – 03 83.
There are many ways to help you remember the order of the numbers; the way I remember is drawing the letter “L” as you always go down first, then across. Also, the zero in “03” is also important – if you miss giving it someone could read the reference as 38 3 – a wholly different place.
A quick exercise – what’s the 4-figure grid reference that has the two circles?
So that brings us onto the next challenge – when there’s only one thing in the square, four figures fine. But that puts it into a 1km square area – not very accurate. A 6-figure reference gives us a better accuracy – a 10m square area.
6-figure reference isn’t much harder to do. Let’s give a 6-figure grid for the Grey circle. We know that the 4-figure grid is …. 02 82 (did you get that?). What we do is divide that square up with ten more vertical and horizontal lines – effectively giving us a “decimal point”. Just using a rough estimate, the grey circle can be calculated as :
02 grid line, plus it’s about 0.8 of the way across to the next grid line – 028
82 gridline, plus it’s about 0.3 of the way up to the next line – 823
So the 6-figure grid reference for the grey square is 028 823.
Soo… what’s the 6-figure grid reference for the square?
Other things to note:
- If the object crosses the grid line, then the 6-figure grid reference will be a zero.
- You may see a couple of letters in front of the grid reference – this defines a certain area and is especially important to start to pin point down the area that the grid reference refers to (in most hikes, this isn’t really needed as the map usually isn’t that big an area)
- You can record 8-figure grid references; this is accurate to 1m square – and is mostly used by the military (and by GPS units… although many are never that accurate to start with!)
VERY IMPORTANT THANKS:
Lees Wood Map Reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of Ordnance Survey, © Crown copyright.
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
Copies of Get-a-map mapping for teaching and classroom use:
Educational establishments may download sufficient copies of each map image as displayed on your browser to provide each pupil/student and teacher with an individual copy.
It’s all about communication…
Just a quick, fun exercise for you to try. Grab a piece of A4 paper and a pen, and follow these instructions:
Draw a square
Divide the square into four
Draw a circle around each corner
Put the sun in the left
At the top of the page write today’s date
Write red at the bottom left of the page
Write your name down the side of the page
Now… does your picture look like mine? (mines’ at the bottom of this blog)
How many times have you answered the question “Where are my keys?” with “They’re over there?”. Where exactly is there? Oh, there? Next to that and above the … that!
When we can see what we’re pointing at, or where we’re looking then communication that requires visual pointers works well. However, we often continue to use this method when someone can’t see where we’re pointing (such as when talking to someone on the phone).
So before answering someone next time, consider what you are going to say and how the person hearing it will be able to respond… after all it’s in the Scout Law, you know, the one that’s over there….
The Million Pound Note
As camping season is almost fully underway, as are school trips and events, I thought it was time to write this particular blog entry.
For those who can remember, there was a film made in 1954 starring Gregory Peck called the Million Pound Note. The basic premis is that two American millionaires give a penniless man a loan, in the form of a single banknote made out to £1million. The film itself then follows his trials and tribulations as he tries to spend this money… but of course, no-one will accept the note (obviously, it’s a lot of money and no-one has that sort of change). There is further twists when it is thought that the note is lost (by this time, Gregory Peck – or rather, his character – has built up an amount of credit on the promise of this note).
So what’s the link between this and Scouting? Okay, here’s a challenge for you. Go into a sweet shop, armed with a £10 note and try to buy 1 Mars Bar and 1 can of coca cola. Feel uncomfortable? See the problem?
But wait – there’s more to this exercise. On another day, armed only with a £10 note in your pocket – no wallet, no credit cards, no spare change – go to work, go to lunch, go to the gym and possibly go shopping. How many times did you check to see that you still had the £10 note in your pocket? What happened when you checked the wrong pocket?
As a plea to parents, please, if you are giving your children pocket money for camps, whether it is going into the camp bank or straight to the child, make sure it’s in small enough amounts that they can buy the things they want to buy – mainly sweets, drinks and possibly comics.
Don’t just give them a single note – at a recent camp I had a distraught Scout come to me as he had lost the £5 note his parents had given him… it was Friday evening so he had nothing at all for the weekend (fortunately, I had a few pound coins I could give him so it wasn’t a total washout for the weekend).
Unless, of course, you want them to buy you a present that cost £7… so that they had change for sweets and drinks….
Scouts report – 1 May
A simple programme this evening as 3 adult leaders would be absent. Malcolm and Ivor to take the boys to the park and enjoy a game of rounders. James the young leader turned up to help despite his damaged big toe. Happened the previous week, hence his non attendance that week. The two left wellies challenge was that each patrol supply a rounders bat and ball. Bulldogs did not score points! Bank holiday weekend with good weather forecasts normally means low numbers as families have a weekend break. Wrong. It was a very good turn out with 18 boys present. 6 in each patrol made it easy to have a round robin of one patrol batting and 2 bowling and fielding. Each patrol had 3 innings this evening as Ivor loves his one bowl and run rule, plus a catch means the whole team is out. Only complete rounders were awarded and Gannets excelled with 18, Wolves 11 and bulldogs 4. Boys could not go past 1st base if they did not hit the ball or it went behind. While there were some rain drops during the evening, there was not enough to deter the game and everyone enjoyed themselves.
