For this issue we asked the following…

“We know some Companies are running the Company Section and Seniors age groups together, what are the advantages and disadvantages to this and how does this work in your Company?”

In response to this a number of leaders have shared their thoughts.

“We have always done it this way, mainly because we do not have enough Officers (and in many years, not enough boys) to run two separate programmes. However, we try to provide separate badge classes for new boys who have just moved up from Junior Section, to provide a softer transition, rather than just suddenly throwing them in with the other boys who are up to 6 years older than them. We find the main difficulty with running Company Section and Seniors together is coming up with fresh ideas for badge work. It can be tempting to just reuse something you did a few years ago, but since you are working with the same boys for up to 7 years, this isn’t really an option.”

Andrew Swann, 1^st Connor

“In recent years as a Company we have actually found a greater need to provide a separate or split programme for the first two years of Company Section (school years 7 and 8) which provides a bit more of a cushion and focus on this age group at a time when there are lots of pressures from the move to secondary school and changing friendships circles. Mixing year 9 upwards has not been so much of a problem for us. This may be unique to us, but we have found this has worked really well and has meant we have retained more young people during the transition from Juniors to Company Section.”

Chris Norman, 10^th Enfield

“I feel it is important to keep activities which are ‘special’ to each age group and this applies to Seniors too. Even if you are running a joint programme they need at least some activities away from the younger ones to allow the younger ones to have something to look forward to when they move to this age group, if not it is just 7 years of ‘the same’.”

Vicki Brownlee, 5^th Hull