S

Keep the apostrophe please.

It’s just ‘the Sahara’; there’s no need to add ‘desert’.

Abbreviate it to ‘St’ (with no point) if it’s in a title, for example, ‘St George is the patron saint of Scouts.’

The shops. The company’s name is J Sainsbury plc (not quite as catchy).

Samaritans has dropped ‘the’ from its name. The organisation is called Samaritans, the volunteers are Samaritans. It’s usually pretty obvious from the context whether they’re talking about the organisation or the volunteers.

People can contact Samaritans about all sorts of concerns, not just suicide (though you can talk to them about that too). They provide services on the phone, by email, by post, and in branch. Samaritans also aims to understand and challenge the social elements that impact suicide.

Call them ‘menstrual products’ or ‘period products’ instead. It gets to the point, so it’s less confusing, and it doesn’t contribute to stigma. Talking about ‘sanitary’ or ‘hygiene’ products reinforces the idea that periods are especially unsanitary or unhygienic – we don’t call toilet paper and tissues ‘bathroom hygiene paper’ or ‘nose sanitary products’, after all.

Capitalise Satan.

Don’t capitalise.

Scandinavia only includes Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. If you mean to include Finland or Iceland (or even both) too, say ‘Nordic countries’ instead.

Only ever say ‘schizophrenia’ to refer to the mental health condition, never to mean ‘in two minds’. A diagnosis of schizophrenia does not mean someone has a ‘split personality’. Most people with schizophrenia don’t commit violent crimes – when people hear voices, they’re more likely to suggest they harm themselves than someone else.

Schizophrenia can be treated with a range of treatments and medications, though there’s no cure. Some people find their symptoms stop for long periods of time (or altogether); others live with it long term. Many people with schizophrenia lead ‘normal’ lives.

Remember, people have schizophrenia, they don’t suffer from it, and they’re never ‘schizophrenics’.

Still got questions? Check out mental health and disability in this guide, then get in touch. We want to help you get it right.

Isles of Scilly is OK, but Scilly Isles isn’t. They’re off the Cornish coast in southwest England. Five are inhabited; one hundred and forty others aren’t.

Scotland’s a country with its own legal system, laws, and courts.

Laws affecting Scotland can be made in the Westminster Parliament in London or the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. The Scottish Parliament has the power to make its own laws in some areas, where law-making powers have been ‘devolved’ (moved to the Scottish Parliament). The Scottish Parliament’s laws only affect Scotland and can only be about certain ‘devolved’ areas (including education, rural affairs, environment, and transport), but the Scottish Parliament has complete authority over these areas.

Never say ‘national’ when you mean ‘UK-wide’. Make sure your writing includes Scotland and Scottish people, and acknowledge any differences where they exist.

Three important differences for Scouts are that Scotland has mid-term (not half-term), Scotland has different school and bank holidays, and outdoor access is different in Scotland (including legal rights and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code instead of the Countryside Code).

It’s outdated and doesn’t help people outside Scouts understand us. 

Scouts is the name of our organisation. If you can, call individual member Scouts too (for example, nine year old Scouts might go to a Cubs meeting).

We only use ‘The Scout Association’ in governance and legal documents where we need to use our formal name. For all other occasions, Scouts reflects how welcoming and approachable we are.

We know it can be confusing when a section shares the name of the organisation – but calling our organisation ‘The Scouts’ doesn’t make it clearer. It’s better to use singular verbs (such as Scouts has, Scouts is, and Scouts does) and make it clear with the context of whatever you’re writing.

For example, if you hear that ‘Today, the Scouts have launched a new campaign’, it’s still not clear whether the campaign was launched by our organisation, a section, or a group of young people. ‘Today, Scouts has launched a major new appeal’ is much clearer.

We can look to Samaritans to see how this works for another organisation. They call their volunteers Samaritans – but they dropped the ‘The’ from their name and use verbs to make it clear (for example, ‘Samaritans has launched a fundraising event’ for the organisation and ‘Samaritans have organised a fundraising event’ for the volunteers).

You’ll notice that we try to lead by example by calling ourselves Scouts across our emails, social media, and website. We’re definitely not perfect – we slip up every now and again too.

We believe it’s important to be consistent when we refer to our organisation, so we’d like to invite you to try to call us ‘Scouts’ where you can. If we all talk about Scouts in the same way, it’ll help people to recognise and trust our brand.

At the same time, our priority is helping people understand (and feel positive about) everything Scouts does. With our priorities – and Scout values – in mind, we respect people’s personal connections with the movement and take these into consideration when people call our organisation ‘the Scouts’.

scouts.org.uk is our public website. It'll soon be the platform for our new, joined up digital system, too.

Members can access its features by clicking the Sign in button available at the top of scouts.org.uk. When launched, it'll have three main digital tools: 

• My Membership
• My Learning
• Volunteering Opportunities

In the future, Youth Data Management will be another digital tool.

A language tip for you - the easiest way to talk about scouts.org.uk is to say: sign in to scouts.org.uk to do (activity). For example: 'sign in to scouts.org.uk to update your membership profile.'

Scout Active Support is a way that adults can provide support to Scouts locally. It's a great way for adults to volunteer some time to Scouts in a flexible way that suits them.

As part of the new volunteer experience, they'll become part of one of the District Teams, depending what their main role is. For example, they might become part of a Support Team.

Also, don’t abbreviate to SAS. Yes, we know it’s tempting. 

Capitalise Scout Adventures.

Capitalise the survey we send out every spring. It helps us find out what people think about a whole range of stuff, from how long they spend volunteering to what they think our top priorities should be. It helps us to make Scouts better, make the best decisions about how to use our time and money, and prove that we’re an organisation worth supporting.

The group of national volunteers that manages the grants that Scouts (the UK-wide organisation) gives local Scouts.     

Try to call it a meeting place, because not all meeting places are alike – some people might meet in a hut or a hall, but not everyone will. Calling it a ‘meeting place’ means your writing is relevant to everyone (plus, it sounds a little less odd than ‘hut’ for people outside Scouts).

We’re a lowercase ‘m’ ‘movement’.

Remember, it’s never Network Scout.

But if you’re talking about ‘a supper’ or ‘the supper’ then it’s lowercase. Scout Suppers are opportunities to show adults what Scouts is about and encourage them to lend a hand.

Scouting is a word we’ve used since the movement began. But it’s important to remember that not everyone knows it means, especially if they’re new. People will often fall back on old stereotypes.

To help people recognise and trust us, especially the public, it’s better to use ‘Scouts’ instead of ‘Scouting’ when writing and talking about ourselves. It matches the word in our logo (and the World Scouts logo too) and helps people understand that we’re one movement, working together. ‘Scouting’ is fine to use when you’re chatting informally with other Scouts. But Scouts is better when communicating with the public and recruiting new members and volunteers.

Our priority is helping people understand (and feel positive) about everything we do to help young people develop skills for life.

Capitalise full names (for example, the ‘Red Sea’) but not general mentions of oceans or seas.

The second hand is the extra hand on some watches and clocks that moves with the seconds. Secondhand means not new, having had a previous owner.

The seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) are all lowercase.

Spell it out in full the first time, then you can just call it SAD. It’s a type of depression (a low mood that lasts for a long time and affects someone’s everyday life) that someone experiences during particular seasons or times of year. Most people are more aware of winter SAD, but you can experience it at any season or time of year. There’s less research on summer SAD.

Don’t capitalise the word itself (unless it’s in the title of a volunteer role, then head to job titles). Spoiler alert: you capitalise the names of the sections within Scouts (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, and Explorers).

Volunteers in the Section Team plan, deliver and run high-quality programmes safely. They make sure all young people can take part in the programme and gain skills for life. They also help young people work towards their Top Awards.

Section Team Leaders make sure all the tasks for the Section Team are completed, so their section can run smoothly and give young people the chance to get the most out of Scouts. 

They’re also members of their Group Leadership Teams (or the 14–24 Team, in the case of Explorers and Network). 

Unlike other Team Leaders, Section Team Leaders aren’t Line Managers.

Previous role name: Section Leader. We’ve just changed the name from Section Leader to Section Team Leader – the role is largely the same. In some sections, there might be a slight change to the way they work, as tasks will be shared between the Section Team Leader and Section Team Members.

Section Team Members help deliver a great programme in a safe environment for volunteers and young people.

Previously, we've had three possible roles in a Section Team (plus Young Leaders). As part of the new volunteer experience, we're simplifying the roles, combining Assistant Section Leader and Section Assistant into one role, recognising how similar the roles are. 

Previous role name: Assistant Section Leader, Section Assistant. To make things simpler, we’ve combined Assistant Section Leaders and Section Assistants into Section Team Member roles, as they’re very similar.

Trademarked. Use ‘sticky tape’ instead.

Use this punctuation mark when a full stop is too much, but a comma just isn’t enough. Semicolons form a bond between two sentences that are too related to each other for a full stop to work, but aren’t related enough for a comma. A good rule of thumb is that the clauses (chunks you’re separating) should be able to stand alone as their own sentences. Generally, don’t use a semicolon with a conjunction (and, but, or, yet).

Of course, there are exceptions to these guidelines if you’re writing a long sentence with multiple clauses – but see if you can split it up to make it easier for your reader.

For example, ‘the Cubs ate lots of marshmallows before bed; the sugar kept them up all night’.   

Semicolons can also help when you need to make a list of items separated by a comma, for example, ‘Anika, Beaver leader; Ashley, Cub leader; Sam, Scout Leader; Aarav, Explorer Scout Leader’.

We use sentence case for titles and headings. All words should be lowercase, except the first letter of the first word and words that are always capitalised (for example, Cubs or Tuesday).

Sexual orientation or sexuality are better terms than ‘sexual preference’. Head to LGBTQ+ to find out more about how to talk about sexuality.

Not ‘Shetland isles’ or ‘Shetlands’. Shetland Islands is OK, as Shetland has around one hundred islands. The largest island is known as ‘Mainland’; there are another 15 inhabited islands. Shetland is in the Northern Atlantic between Great Britain, the Faroe Islands, and Norway.

Not shoe-in. It means a person or thing that’s certain to succeed. Try and avoid it if you can, though, as it isn’t plain English.

Never use this term – people are conjoined twins.

Companies and organisations (including Scout groups) take the singular. For example, ‘Scouts is disappointed that the BBC has decided…’. Bands take the plural. Staff in a workplace take the plural too, for example ‘staff at Gilwell aren’t given free lunches’.

Capitalise it only if you’re talking about a Cub Scout Six (a smaller group of Cub Scouts within a Pack who look out for one another, and help each other grow).

The leader of the Six, who’s chosen to take on leadership responsibilities such as welcoming new people to the Pack, being extra helpful on camp, or taking charge of a particular game or activity. There may also be Seconders to help the Sixers out.

If in the context of a sentence, it should say ‘skills for life’. If it’s a hashtag, it should read #SkillsForLife. If it’s the name of our strategic plan, it’s Skills for Life. 

We write like we speak. We don’t talk using slashes, so always try to avoid them in text. You can usually say ‘or’ instead.

The slave trade existed in Britain from the 1500s. It became illegal in Britain in 1772. The slave trade in the British Empire was abolished in 1807, but slavery remained in the colonies until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Slavery did not end then, though, so be careful when writing about it. It continues to harm people worldwide in different forms (including forced labour, human trafficking, child slavery, and forced marriage).

This type of homelessness needs a hyphen. Sofa-surfing is when people sleep on friends’ (or even strangers’) sofas because they have nowhere else to go. People are often less aware of it because it’s hidden and invisible.

See compass points.

Put a single space after a full stop before you start the next word. Just like that. See. It’s simple, isn’t it?

Use ‘additional needs’ instead, please. See disability.

Choose ‘spelled’ rather than ‘spelt’. See past participles for the lowdown.

It’s always two words. If there’s one web, we presume it belongs to one spider and call it a spider’s web. If there are multiple (yuck), it’s spiders’ webs. 

Call the people who support badges or help us out in other ways ‘supporters’. The exception is our A Million Hands partners.

Choose ‘spoiled’ rather than ‘spoilt’. See past participles for the lowdown.

See Drey for more information.

Squirrels is our youngest section for 4-6 year olds. A Squirrel section is called a Drey.

Call individual members Scouts whenever you can (including adults as well as young people).

For example, you might say ‘Nicola’s a five year old Scout. Once a week, she goes to her nearest Squirrels.

This isn’t always possible, and it’s OK to refer to Squirrels, but use Scouts where possible. 

See Section Team Leader

No apostrophe for the town, university, or (well-known) golf course. 

The feast day of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, is 30 November.

The feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, is 1 March.

The feast day of Saint George, the patron saint of England, is 23 April. Baden-Powell chose Saint George to be the patron saint of Scouts, so St George’s Day is often a cause for celebration.

Show diverse, inclusive, fun celebrations, and use your words to emphasise that groups and sections should celebrate and renew their promises in their own way. It might be more appropriate for some people to call their celebration something else that doesn’t mention St George (and that’s OK).

Celebrations should involve everyone; remember that uniformed marches aren’t the only option, especially as we want Scouts to be seen as more relevant to today’s society. 

The feast day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is 17 March.

It’s not St John’s Ambulance. Go on, google it if you don’t believe us.

Not stadia. When’s the last time you heard someone say stadia?

For more information, see badges and awards.

Stationary means not moving; stationery is envelopes (a useful way to remember the ‘e’) and the other stuff that litters desks.

Be careful not to confuse, for example, stepsisters and half-sisters.

Two words, please.

One word without any spaces, please.

Sub-teams are a great way of organising our volunteers who sit within another team, but have a specific focus. Sub-teams have a Team Description and a Team Leader who’ll work with the main team.

Sub-teams can be set up by Team Leaders when they’ve identified a focus, but they’re completely optional. 

Every team can have sub-teams, except Section Teams.

Did you know the Sun isn’t actually on fire? Hydrogen doesn’t burn, it fuses into helium, releasing energy that radiates as heat and light.

Two words, please

Don’t say ‘commit’ (suicide hasn’t been a criminal act in the UK since 1961) or ‘successful’. Keep it plain: talk about people ‘taking’ or ‘ending’ their lives, or even ‘killing themselves’.

Never include triggering or detailed information or images.

It’s often best to include a content warning, and to signpost to organisations such as Mind, Samaritans and NSPCC (as well as reminding people of the Yellow Card too). Check out mental health and disability for more information, then feel free to ask us for a hand. We want to help you say it right.

Lower case and one word please.

Call the people who support badges or help us out in other ways ‘supporters’. The exception is our A Million Hands partners.

The Support Centre (previously called the Information Centre) answers enquiries from members and the public. Beginning its service in 1999, the Support Centre originally helped with queries over the phone, but now supports members and the public over webchat and email, too.

This team of volunteers give tools and resources to help Scouts run smoothly. They look after the support tasks which often happen behind the scenes.

Support Teams are responsible for effective processes, community engagement, property, and (in Districts) new provision.

Previous role name: Scout Active Support Units. Where these teams were looking after Support Team tasks (for example, managing a campsite), they may become part of the Support Team.

See Programme Team and Volunteering Development Team to see two other ways Scout Active Support Units now function.

A building in which Jews meet for religious worship or instruction (or the occasion on which Jews meet in a synagogue for religious worship and instruction). Synagogues are also used as places to study and as community centres.