To outsiders, Cubs appear to stand around in circles chanting "Do Your Best...Weeeeee'lll Do Our Best". They wear stripey scarves with clasps called woggles. They learn obscure knots and sing Kumbaya around campfires.

But Rasha Ahmed said she signed her three sons up to Australia's first all Islamic Cub pack, attached to the Australian International Academy, a Muslim school in Coburg, for the discipline and values, as well as the fun, offered by the Scouting movement.

At an investiture ceremony on Tuesday in the school hall, state Scouting commissioners presented 14 children aged eight to 10, including five girls, with their certificates and badges and handed the pack's inaugural flag to the "Akela", or leader, Academy teacher Carlo Belfiore.

Ms Ahmed said Scouting was popular in her native Egypt where is it called Kashafah, derived from an Arabic word for "exploring".

Her sons – 10-year-old twins Younus and Yahya Salman, and Dawoud Salman, 9 – had been to trial Cub sessions involving visiting the elderly and cleaning up litter in parks.

In March they went to a Centenary of Cubs celebration at Melbourne Zoo where they did climbing and ball games, "having fun while learning new things and meeting new people".

"I love the Scouts program. I love what it gives," Ms Ahmed said. "There's a lot of education about respect, working together, independence, mixing with society, helpfulness. All these values are very important. It's something I really believe in."

She said it would expose them to a wider world and interacting with people from different backgrounds at camps and events.

At the very least, it would be an alternative to staying indoors and playing on their iPads.

One curious rule was that Scouts shake hands with their left hand, whereas Muslims shake with their right hands.

Ms Ahmed learned that this derived from Scouts' founder Lord Baden-Powell's encounter with an African tribe. It signified trust between two people because the left hand traditionally held a shield, so dropping it meant dropping one's defences.

"I was fascinated and thought it was beautiful and my kids learnt something new," Ms Ahmed said.

Although Scouts were originally Christian, Mr Belfiore said there is no longer much trace in the ceremonies of this.

Mr Belfiore said the Scout promise, "On My Honour, I promise to do my best, to do my duty to my God, and to Australia" might have been problematic.

"But the staff at the school were satisfied that the 'duty to my God' is the God in which you believe [Allah], so it wasn't a problem in them saying that, and the parents were happy."

Rana Hussain, the school's student welfare co-ordinator, said school principal Leyla Mahmoud approached Scouts Victoria with the idea to start a long-term Scouts program late last year.

Ms Hussain said the idea was a way of connecting Muslim youth with the broader community. It might deflect some "negative heat" towards Muslims from the media and elsewhere "and show the world that we do actually participate in civil society, and we're engaged and teach our students that as well".