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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Virtual Taskmaster

Get online and start problem-solving as you try to impress the Taskmaster with silly, exciting challenges.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Device with access to the internet

Staying safe online

This activity’s designed for you to run during an online session. Take a look at our advice on using Zoom and other popular digital platforms, as well as guidance to help everyone to stay safe online.

Make sure that the person leading the game is the meeting host and that they know how to use the waiting room function on Zoom – there’s more information on the Zoom blog.

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers

Setting up the activity

  • Prepare your tasks in advance and let people know if they’ll need any specific equipment for your session.

Introducing Taskmaster 

  1. Gather everyone together on the virtual platform.
  2. Welcome everyone to the game and introduce who will be the Taskmaster. Another adult could be the Taskmaster's Assistant and keep track of scores. You could also use a whiteboard or piece of paper to note down the points. 
  3. Tell everyone that they'll be taking part in a variety of tasks. They'll need to think creatively to impress the Taskmaster and earn points.
  4. You could set up a digital device and watch this introduction video from Alex Horne, the Taskmaster's assistant, to start the session. Or play the video and share your screen if you're meeting online.
  5. Share the ground rules. Make sure everyone knows they need to keep themselves and each other safe.
  6. Decide whether you'll play individually, in pairs or in small groups. 

Completing the tasks

  1. It’s time to start tasking! The Taskmaster should read out the first challenge.
  2. Everyone should complete the task. The Taskmaster's Assistant should keep track of time with a digital timer or they could use a stopwatch. You might find one on a phone!
  3. Depending on the challenge, everyone could take it in turns to share their results or entries when the time is up.
  4. The Taskmaster should award points. It’s up to them how you do this – they could give points to the best entry or give points to their top three entries. You could also give points from 1 up to how many groups or people you have so that everyone gets a point. For example, with 10 players, the lowest scorer would get 1 point and the challenge winner would get 10 points.
  5. Think about nominating a different Taskmaster for each task – why not ask Young Leaders if your Group or Section have them?
  6. Everyone should keep playing with new tasks until the meeting ends.
  7. The Taskmaster should congratulate everyone for taking part, with a big round of applause for the winner!
  1. Be ready, respectful and safe at all times.
  2. The Taskmaster’s decision is final.
  3. Keep yourself and everyone in your group safe.
  4. If you move something, put it back.
  5. If you make a mess, clean it up.
  6. Be kind to the Taskmaster, your teammates, or members of other teams.
  7. Have fun.

Some of our favourites task ideas include:

  • Make someone's knee look like a famous person.
  • How many socks can you fit on one hand in 90 seconds?
  • Build the highest tower you can in 3 minutes.
  • Find the best hat. But it can’t be an actual hat!
  • Eat a piece of fruit without using your hands.
  • Make something spin for 55 seconds – it can’t stop during that time!
  • Make the best paper aeroplane. You can use any materials you like. Furthest flight wins.
  • Make a fleur-de-lis out of natural objects.
  • Using only a straw, move as many Smarties (or similar) as you can from a plate to a cup.
  • Collect as many objects of a certain colour as you can in 5 minutes.
  • Tear an animal shape out of a piece of paper while blindfolded.
  • Put on a blindfold and stand up after exactly 200 seconds.
  • Balance on 1 leg for the longest time.
  • Balance a spoon on your nose for 30 seconds.
  • Balance a square thing on a round thing.
  • Make the unlikeliest object wear a Scout necker.
  • Put on an item of clothing in the most unusual way.
  • Find an inanimate object that looks like you.
  • Find the biggest leaf. Biggest leaf wins.
  • Make a dramatic entrance – the most dramatic wins.
  • Who can say the alphabet backwards the fastest?
  • The Taskmaster has written a number on their arm, which is under 100. Closest person to guess the number wins.
  • Place a biscuit on your forehead. Quickest to eat it wins...but you can’t use your hands!
  • Draw a picture of your face using only your feet! Best picture wins.
  • Cover your body with as many sticky notes as possible whilst blindfolded.
  • One at a time, make a noise without the Taskmaster identifying you. The person who makes the most unidentified noises wins.

Reflection

This activity was all about giving everyone the chance to think on their feet and solve problems in a creative way.

Ask everyone how they found the activity. Does anyone want to share which tasks they found the easiest or most difficult, and why?

Did they find it easy to think of fun ways to complete all the tasks? Not all problems are easy to solve, but thinking outside the box and being creative are great skills to learn and can help in a lot of different situations.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

Your tasks are totally customisable. If you’re setting challenges to complete at home, you could choose some more challenging or time-consuming tasks.

If people may struggle with some of the tasks, let people work in pairs or groups. You can adapt the tasks so everyone can take part. 

If you’re setting challenges to complete at home, make sure that everyone can access the equipment they’ll need for your tasks. Think about how you’ll involve everyone in the group.

Some people might not want to take part in the tasks. Could they help think of new tasks for the group, keep scores or act as Taskmaster for one of the rounds instead?

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.