Archery (shooting at a target with a bow and arrow) is a great test of skill and with the correct equipment can be run in some shape or form for all sections.
Soft Archery
The great news for our younger sections (and any older ones that want a go) is that you can run ‘soft’ archery with nothing more than a soft archery set and a risk assessment. Soft archery involves shooting at a target with arrows with rubber suckers at the end. The sets consist of a bow, some arrows and a target and are usually labelled as a toy. Soft archery is great as an introduction to the activity and particularly the safety rules associated with archery, preparing participants for future sessions. To support this, the county team has produced a guide sheet to explain what rules we’d like to be taught (available in the downloads section).
Running Archery
What people traditionally think of as archery is usually ‘recurve’ archery, named for the type of bow used. Within Scouting a leader wishing to run recurve archery (or anything more advanced) will need an archery AAP (Adventurous Activities Permit) to be able to run archery as an activity for a youth section. You could also take your group to a commercial provider for them to run archery for you, and if it’s just over 18’s taking part you can run it under the ‘Adult groups’ rule with no permit required:
County Team
We have a great team within the county to support archery instructors and anyone who wants to become one. If you already have the skills needed to run sessions and a knowledge of the associated Scout Association rules, a couple of assessors just need to see you running a session. If they are happy that you are capable of running sessions on your own they will submit a technical recommendation for a permit. Permits are actually granted by the district’s lead volunteer (or county lead volunteer when appropriate).
If you need to brush up on your skills or even if you’ve never touched a bow before, the county team will train you and get you to the standard required for an assessment. The skills that you need to hold your own permit are shown on the Archery Permit Assessment Checklist:
Archery Courses & Assessment
At least once per year the county offers an ‘Archery instructor course’. This 2 day course (ran over a weekend) will teach anyone all of the technical skills necessary to run a session by themselves, and can also act as a refresher for anyone with experience but unsure if whether they are ready for assessment. But please note – this course does not include an assessment. If you’re interested in attending a course, get in touch with the archery team.
Another way to gain some of the skills is to achieve a National Governing Body award, in this case from Archery GB. But even this may not cover everything required for a permit assessment, so take a look at that checklist above.
If you need an assessment, it will be completed in as ‘natural’ an environment as possible. That means with young people from your own section, with your own group, at the location where you intend to usually run archery. The assessors will be there to help to run your session but you will lead it, and at the end the assessors will advise whether they can recommend a permit or whether more consolidation / learning is required. During an assessment you will have to show a full cycle of running a session, and be able to answer questions about other aspects of the permit which can’t be demonstrated during the session. If you’d like to arrange an assessment, get in touch with the archery team.
Permits can be renewed without requiring another assessment if you can produce a log showing you taking an active part in sessions while you’ve held the permit. Just send in your log to the archery team. Don’t worry if you haven’t ran enough sessions – if you’re still confident to run them we just need to see one session run by you the same as a normal assessment.
Please don’t run an archery session for a youth section without a permit (or without someone with a supervisory permit present) – you will be suspended if you do.
Further information can be found here:
You can get in touch with the archery team on the Facebook group or email [email protected]
County Facebook Group
The County Archery team has a group on Facebook, used to discuss anything and everything related to Archery.
Adults in Adventurous Activities
