UM6 Another GFI activities week

End of Term, GFI sessions and big patrols

The guides had another GFI evening tonight, where they had were supposed to have chosen activities to last most of the evening.

It was the last week of term - many of them in new high schools - and we found an interesting mix of over-tired, hyper, exhausted, stroppy and slightly-off-colour girls. So, probably not the easiest of nights, and also perhaps not the best for a GFI night when they are required to listen to each other, follow instructions for activities they have chosen, think for themselves, and work together.  

Note to self: Don't do GFI sessions at the end of a half term!

Our Young Leaders were tired and off-colour this evening too, and not up to their normal level of help, so spent much of their time just chatting. They were both tired and had come straight from school, so we didn't push them too much.  

By and large, the girls seemed to enjoy their activities, but these were some of the things that, as a leader, I thought didn't work quite so well.

• One patrol finished much earlier than any of the others. They then spent time wandering round the room distracting other girls.  They had other activities to do, but raced through them, and needed constant 'entertainment' to stop them  interrupting other patrol's activities.  
• One of the patrol chosen activities was to play Captain's Coming with the whole unit - but that required all the tables to be put away, and the whole unit available to play with them, when others were doing their own activities.  
• Our 'big' patrol of 8 were doing cooking, making cheese puffs. While this worked well as an activity and they were all very pleased with their results, it was hard work with 8 very lively girls in the kitchen.  In future, I'd try and ensure this patrol has at least 2 activities, then split the patrol in half, and swap over activities half way through.
• The 'cooking' group had failed to tell us that they needed flour, rolling pins.  We only got half the information on their planning sheet. They just assumed it would all be there.
• Without an extra parent helper, I struggled to keep track of what activities the girls were doing and whether they'd actually done what they had chosen (or whether they were just sitting nattering).
• We definitely had a problem with girls not listening to simple instructions, walking off/talking when leaders were speaking to them, not paying attention, and leaving other people to do the hard work (our newest guide ended up doing all of the washing up for her big-8 patrol when they did cooking. Despite us asking them, the other girls all just disappeared or messed around.  There was a lot of cleaning and tidying to do by the leaders afterwards.
• One patrol had to make a play up, which apparently consisted of them using the side room to screech at each other and roll around the floor...

That said, the Guides' view afterwards was that they had enjoyed the evening, and I do think they appreciated having a less structured evening where they could just chatter, lark around, and be kids.  It just felt harder work than normal for the leaders.

So, what to do to improve this?  I think there are some fairly simple solutions

1. Our Big-8 patrol - split in two for activities - this would make it easier to focus instructions to the individuals, hopefully reduce them shirking out of tidying up, and reduce the messing around....and give them all more access to the equipment/activities they are using. Win-Win.
2. Kitchen work - no more than 6 in the kitchen at once (see first point!)
3. At GFI Planning session:
1. check the chosen activities should last long enough to fill the time allocated
2. stress that the equipment and resources that they need leaders to provide MUST be written on the form - otherwise it won't be there!

Baden Powell Activities

Also tonight, our BP girls took themselves off to try and plan a collaborative games evening together. We talked briefly about what 'collaborative games' are and they bounced some ideas around.  Not quite sure what they are going to end up with, but i'm not absolutely convinced they really understood 'collaborative games' as i think they had football and netball on the list (30 girls in small church hall....ahem).  We will see!

That said, I am really impressed with their enthusiasm to organise the evening (and for the BP challenge clauses in general), and that they really got on and had a brainstorm about what kind of things they thought the other Guides would enjoy doing.