Badges at home: send us the evidence from your sofa
Your young person can work towards badges away from Monday nights, and you can send us the evidence straight through Online Scout Manager. Here's how it works, and three easy things to start with.
Some of the best badge work happens nowhere near a Scout hall. It happens in a kitchen, in a garden, on a bike at the side of a road, or on a walk where somebody finally works out which tree is which.
You can now send us the evidence for that work directly, using the Badges at Home feature in Online Scout Manager. Upload a photo, a short video or a document, tell us which requirements it covers, and one of our leaders will review it and update your young person’s badge record.
Read the full step-by-step guide »
Why we’re telling you about it
Badges are one of the best things about Scouting, and our young people earn plenty of them on a Monday night. But an hour a week only stretches so far — and some requirements are simply better suited to home, where there is time, a kitchen, and no queue for the equipment.
This is a way of making that work count. It also means the young person who spent three weekends on something gets the credit for it, rather than it quietly going unnoticed.
It is completely optional. It is not homework, it is not a competition, and nobody is behind if they never use it. If you do try it, pick something your young person already enjoys — that is where this works best.
Three easy ones to start with
You do not need a project. Most of the best evidence is something that was going to happen anyway.
Mend a puncture
A photo of hands actually doing the repair says far more than a photo of a working bike afterwards. Snap it halfway through, while the tyre levers are still in.
Cook a two-course meal
Both courses in the shot, served by the person who made them. Add a line in the comments about who did the planning and shopping, because that is usually part of the requirement too.
Identify some trees
A leaf, a guide and a few notes together show how they worked it out — which is the bit the badge is actually asking about.
These are illustrative examples we put together for this article, not submissions from our members.
The short version of how it works
Sign in to your OSM account, choose your young person, then open Badges → Completable At Home. Pick a badge, select Complete at Home, upload your evidence, and tick the requirements it shows. Add a comment if there is useful context, then submit.
A leader takes it from there. Worth knowing: uploading is a submission, not an approval — a volunteer still reviews it, and they may ask for a bit more before signing anything off.
One thing to check every time
Before you upload, have a proper look at the background of the photo. Home addresses, school logos, letters on the worktop, an open laptop screen — all easy to miss and hard to unsend. Please also avoid including other children unless you have their parent’s permission.
Evidence you send us stays in OSM with the volunteers reviewing it. We would never lift it for the website or social media off the back of an upload; if we ever wanted to use a photo publicly, we would ask you first.
Where to find the detail
The full guide covers the walkthrough with screenshots, what makes evidence easy to say yes to, the privacy checks, what happens after you submit, and answers to the questions we get asked most.
How to complete badges at home »
Any questions, speak to your section leader or email info@144glasgowscouts.org.