About Us

We’re Preparing Young People With Skills For Life

Tynemouth Scouts has over 1,000 members, located in Northumberland in the North East of England; which covers part of the Local Authoritiy of North Tyneside covering Tynemouth, North Shields, Meadow Well, Percy Main, Howdon and Wallsend.

As Scouts, we believe in preparing young people with skills for life. We bring communities together and contribute to society. Above all, we aim to build better futures. Each week, across the UK, almost half a million young people enjoy fun, friendship and outdoor adventure. They develop a sense of optimism and strong values as well as the leadership and teamwork skills that are more valuable today than ever before.

Across the UK; we are now building on our recent success; Scouting achieves remarkable things. Our previous plan, Scouting for All, inspired 834 new sections to start in areas of deprivation since 2013. We now help over 462,000 young people aged 6-18 (including 102,000 girls) get the best possible start in life. It inspired our community impact campaign, A Million Hands, helping over 250,000 young people make a positive contribution in their local communities.

Across Tynemouth, we now want to go further and our plan is simple. We will support amazing leaders to deliver an inspiring programme and prepare more young people with skills for life. We’ll contribute to a better society. But most of all our plan is for young people. They deserve the best skills, the best support and the best possible futures.

Our Mission

Scouting actively engages and supports young people in their personal development, empowering them to make a positive contribution to society.

Our Vision

By 2023 we will have prepared more young people with skills for life, supported by amazing leaders delivering an inspiring programme, across a well-managed provision throughout Tynemouth Scouts.

Across Tynemouth Scouts, we will…

• be growing, more inclusive, shaped by young people and making a bigger impact in our communities
• focus on what matters; and the actions that will increase the impact of Scouting
• maximise our impact; doing less, doing it well, supporting and embedding
• make volunteering as easy as possible; keeping it practical and simple
• work together; sharing and collaborating in keeping with our culture

Our Strategic Objectives

We want Tynemouth Scouts to continue to be a District that is:

• Growing: We believe Scouts changes lives so we want to give every young person in the UK the opportunity to join.
• Inclusive: Everyone, regardless of their background, should be able to participate in Scouts.
• Youth Shaped: Every young person should be shaping their experience and developing their leadership potential.
• Making a Significant Community Impact: Through community impact projects, Scouts makes a difference not just to the individual but to whole communities.

Our Pillars of Work

To meet our strategic objectives, we will focus on these three pillars of work:

• Programme: Ensuring we offer a fun, enjoyable, high quality programme consistently delivered and supported by simple (digital) tools.
• People: Building our team so that we have more, well trained, better supported and motivated adult volunteers, and more young people from diverse backgrounds.
• Perception: Scouting is understood, more visible, trusted, respected and widely seen as playing a key role in society today.

Our Values

Team Tynemouth is more than just a name, it’s our culture. Culture is created by living an organisation’s values and interacting using behaviours that are appropriate and create an appropriate environment.

As Scouts we are guided by our values:

• Care: We support others and take care of the world in which we live.
• Respect: We have self-respect and respect for others.
• Integrity: We act with integrity; we are honest, trustworthy and loyal.
• Cooperation: We make a positive difference; we cooperate with others and make friends.
• Belief: We explore our faiths, beliefs and attitudes.

As Scouts in Tynemouth, we choose to interact with each other in line with our behaviours:

• Have Fun: Our young people have more fun when our adult volunteers are enjoying their volunteering. Don’t be ashamed to have great fun doing what we do – it’s our hobby.
• Be Positive: Choose how to interact with each other and choose to focus on our significant impact and the great successes that we experience. We make a massive difference to over communities across Tynemouth, North Shields, Meadow Well, Percy Main, Howdon and Wallsend, and contribute to a worldwide impact – now that’s something to be positive about.
• Connect with People: We’re better when we’re connected – take the opportunity to develop strong networks amongst our members, connect face to face and make the most of the incredible knowledge and talents across our team of over 500 adult volunteers and at least the same number of occasional helpers.
• Recognise Contribution: We all give our time to provide skills for life to our young people – and it’s right that we all take the time to be appreciative of what each member of our team brings.
• Work as a Team: Teamwork is key – every week, 1000 young people take part in Scouting across Tynemouth, North Shields, Meadow Well, Percy Main, Howdon and Wallsend – that takes a massive team effort to deliver.
• Be Transparent: There’s no point not being – transparency is key to building trust and dealing with any difficulties.
• Fact-Based and Focused: Let’s focus on what matters; the things that make a real difference and the things that change lives and change communities.

Scouting in Tynemouth started in 1908 when the 1st Tynemouth was formed in May of that year, closely followed by the 1st North Shields and the 1st Christ Church in June and August respectively.

The District was “put firmly on the map” on the 27th of September 1911 when we were visited by the Chief Scout Lord Baden-Powell himself who stated he was “well satisfied with Tynemouth Scouts”.

Since those early days some Groups have closed, merged, or re-named but there has always been a Scouting presence in the area.

Originally the District was know as Tynemouth Association and comprised of the Northern Division, covering the Whitley Bay area, and the Southern Division which covered the Tynemouth area.

In 1928 the two Divisions split to form Whitley Bay District and Tynemouth District.

Although we are still called Tynemouth District we now cover a much larger area. We have 12 Groups and 3 Explorer Scout Units, covering North Shields, Wallsend, Battle Hill and Howdon, as well as Tynemouth itself.

Who’s involved
Originally scouting was just for boys, as the name “Boy Scouts” implied. The girls formed their own “sister” organisation of the Girl Guides.

In 1976 girls started to join our oldest youth section of the day when they became Venture Scouts, at the same time the word “boy” was dropped from our name and we became known as simply “Scouts”.

A national review of Scouting took place in 1991 and now Scouting is open to boys and girls aged between 6 and 25 spread across 4 youth sections.

Once the person reaches 25 it doesn’t end there as they can join one of the Scout adult sections which has no upper age limit.