Yes! To be part of Hexnet you must be in a Hallam Explorer unit or if you are 18+ you will be part of Grindstone Network. We require you to be an active member of a Scout group so that you are covered by the scouting insurance.

No, here at Hexnet our aim is to help you achieve your Chief Scout's/King's Scout awards. These awards have the same requirements as DofE plus a few extra elements, therefore we sign off your DofE awards along the way as a bonus. If you only want to complete DofE, Hexnet is not the group for you and there are many other providers that can facilitate this.

All of our meetings are compulsory as we need to ensure you have the correct training in order to have the skills to execute and be safe on expedition. If you are unwell, please send us an email to hexnetscouts@gmail.com to let us know and we will send you some resources to catch up on any learning you have missed out on. Should you miss more than 2 of the 6 evening meetings, we will need to assess whether we feel you are able to attend expedition. We will discuss this with you and may need to arrange some further teaching.

Yes, at Hexnet we require you to be aged 15 before you sign up to Diamond. We understand that some schools will allow you to do the DofE levels earlier, however at Hexnet this age limit is for several reasons: The structure of meetings at Hexnet is designed so to take into account the exams and school timings for each level/year group. At Silver, if you attend from 14+ you will have to apply to take an extra day off school for the expedition, whereas from 15+ you will be out of school already. By taking Diamond early, you will have to take a year out before they do Kings/Gold because there is a hard and fast rule that you have to be 16 before starting, that we cannot get around. The above points become even more complex when your group is of a mixed age. If half of the group is the right age, and half aren't, the way the evenings are planned means you might not be together as a team for planning routes/some training and won't be working as a team the whole time. This would be fine if we were a small group at Hexnet, but with over 100 kids each year it becomes a nightmare to keep a track of who should be where and when. Additionally, half of the team will have to wait for the other half to be old enough to do Kings, or you will need to find other members to fill their team.

Yes! Anyone who is working towards Dimond/King's and hasn't previously done an award with us at Hexnet will need some further training to catch you up to speed. We will identify this in the first meeting and make you aware of any extra meetings you will need to attend.