Badge Placement

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.

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.

World Membership Badge, worn in all sections

Your World Membership Badge follows you in every section, from Beavers 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.

Joining In Awards, wear your highest four awards

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.

Moving On Awards, wear the award from your last section

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.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, Always wear your highest award

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.

Chief Scout’s Awards, Always wear your highest award

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!

Section Challenge Awards, Only wear awards for your section

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

Staged Activity Badges, Wear your highest level in all sections

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.

Section Activity Badges,Only wear awards for your section

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.

BeaversSix Challenge Awards