Just where do I put that badge?

We are so often asked… “Where does this badge go?”

As your young person earns badges, they’ll need to be sewn onto their uniform. We’ve put together a series of handy diagrams showing you where all the badges should be sewn, along with information about what badges move through the sections with your young person.

There is lots of help out there on Google and Bing, but for those of you that don’t like scrolling page after page… we have put the ultimate guide together for you.

What to do with your badges when you move up to a new section
You can take some of your badges with you, but others will need to move to your camp blanket

When it’s time to move to a new section, you may want to keep your old uniform as a keepsake, with all your badges intact, just as they were when you left the previous section. Once you’re invested in your new section, you can buy a section starter set for a small fee, and sew the new badges onto your new uniform. If you want to keep your uniform exactly as it was, you can also buy replacement staged activity badges from either the Sheffield Scout and Guide shop or the on-line Scout Shop.

If you prefer, you can unstitch your badges and move them across. The guide below shows what you can do with the badges you’ve earned, and explains which ones you can keep on your uniform when you move into a new section, and which ones can’t move across. As ever, if you have any questions about badge placement or which ones you can keep, speak to your section leaders, who will be able to help you.

Your World Membership Badge follows you in every section, from Squirrels all the way through to Network, and even being an Adult Volunteer. You can either unstitch it from your current uniform and re-sew it, or buy a new one to sew onto your new uniform.

You can wear up to four Joining In Awards, which should be the four latest ones you’ve earned. So, if you’ve been in Scouts for 5 years, you’d wear your Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5 awards.

The Moving On award is given to you as you prepare to move from one section to another, to show that you have moved on, so you would only wear the last badge you achieved in the previous section.

When you complete your Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, you can wear the highest award you’ve achieved on the uniform you’re currently wearing. When you achieve a higher award, unstitch the old one and sew on your new one.

The Chief Scout’s Award is the highest award for every section you’ll be part of, so, you always wear the highest award you’ve achieved. Unstitch the old award, and sew on your new award, and wear it with pride!

You should only wear Challenge Awards from your current section on your uniform. For example, you wouldn’t wear your Squirrel Awards on your Beaver sweater, or Beaver Awards on your Cubs sweater, or your Cubs Awards on your Scouts uniform.

You’ll start to earn Staged Activity Badges in Beavers and keep earning them all the way through to your time in Explorers, so you can carry these over onto your new uniforms whenever you move on. You should only wear the highest level you’ve earned.

You should only wear Activity Badges from your current section on your uniform. As with Challenge Awards, you don’t wear your Beaver badges on your Cubs sweater, or your Cubs badges on your Scouts uniform.

Challenge Awards

How to sew your challenge awards onto your uniform

The order in which you sew your badges on isn’t important – they don’t need to be in exactly the same place as shown – but the diagrams show you the pattern in which they should be sewn.

Squirrels

4 Challenge Awards