Meet the Leaders
Our Beaver Colony is led by a team of Leaders that include Alison (Polar Bear), Ben (Octopus), Catherine (Dragonfly) and Keith (Kingfisher). Our leader names are inspired by water-based creatures (like a Beaver) and have been chosen with the help of our Beavers.
Alison (Polar Bear)
Polar Bear (Allison) started scouting when Explorers were called Venture Scouts! I’ve been a Beaver Leader since 2014 and am a Mum of 3 teenagers – 2 with SEN and one who is Explorer and Young Leader, Puffin. My first career was in the Catering Industry for 20 years before retraining as a Teaching Assistant. I love coming up with different challenges using both the Scouting programme and outside influences.
Ben (Octopus)
Octopus (Ben) has been involved with scouting across South-West Birmingham since he was a Beaver before joining Bournville Scouts as an Explorer scout. As an Explorer scout Ben participated in the Young Leader Scheme and stayed on to become an adult leader in the Beaver section. Ben enjoys coming up with fun and inventive games and activities making sure that the Beavers are always engaged with something new and exiting to learn and develop.
Catherine (Dragonfly)
Catherine (Dragonfly) joined the Beaver leadership team ten years ago. Her career was in the NHS where she worked for 37 years. She volunteers as a literacy support worker at a primary school in Druids Heath and enjoys engaging children with reading for pleasure. She works with the team to design the Beaver activity programmes which provide the children with a range of challenges. Seeing them grow in confidence and capability over time is hugely rewarding.
Keith (Kingfisher)
Kingfisher (Keith) is relatively new to scouting and only became a Beaver Leader in 2022. However he has thrown himself into the programme working with the other leaders to make every activity fun, engaging and accessible for the Beavers.
Keith is an engineer working on the railway and so loves to use this experience when planning fun and interesting engineering and science based activities and experiments.