New Girlguiding Programme - an index of skills builder cards and unit meeting activity cards

With the launch of the new programme comes a plethora of 'activity cards' for the prescribed Unit Meeting Activities that must be done, as well as for the prescribed Skills Biulder Activities.

With 12 UMA cards per pack (3 packs available), and 5 Skills Builder Activity Cards per level, per topic, per theme, we have a LOT of A4 cards to 'scan' through when planning.

Skills Builders:

There are 6 stages (levels) -
* Rainbows = 1,2
* Brownies = 2,3
* Guides = 3,4,5
* Rangers = 5,6

Each of the 6 themes has 2 topics at each level, and 5 activities to complete at each level

This means for Level 3, we have 6 themes x 2 topics x 5 activities = 60 cards at level 3, and the same at level 4, and level 5.

OR if you think if it in themes, we have
Express Myself theme, has 2 topics "Communicate" and "Innovate"
* Communicate stage 3 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 3 has 5 activities
* Communicate stage 4 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 4 has 5 activities

* Communicate stage 5 has 5 activities
* Innovate stage 5 has 5 activities

On top of that there are compulsory Unit Meeting Activities (a guide must do 5 hours of these per theme, in order to get the theme award, as well as the SB level and an interest badge).  

So, all in all, a LOT of different activities to try and fit in over a 2-3 year rolling programme. It feels like a planning nightmare, trying to ensure that 24 girls at 3 different stages, cover all elements required for the badge, as well as ensuring the programme is sufficiently girl-led (despite the prescriptive approach of the new activities), varied, and caters for the individual.

To try and help with this, i've collated key information from each activity card into a summary index spreadsheet which tells me what the activities at each level and topic are, the timing/duration, what resources are required, what space (indoor or outdoor) is needed, and any comments or concerns I have. 

If you want to have a look at my efforts, you can download the SB and UMA Index spreadsheet from here - be warned, it's not pretty and contains many typos.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will be adding information about the minimum number of girlrs required to run each activity, and whether a leader is required (many activities DO need leader input and DO need larger numbers, despite the blurb on the GG website telling us these are brilliant for small groups, and designed to be self-led.  

If you've got any suggestions or corrections, plesae do let me know!


DOWNLOAD LINK: SB and UMA Index spreadsheet 

New Girlguiding Programme - record sheets for girls older guides, and for those who lose their badge books

So, Girlguiding has launched a new programme For Every Girl, from Rainbows up to Rangers. Here is the official overview. 

Guides will now all have to buy  a new Badge Book which contains all of the clauses for the interest badges, and to record all of their progress.  However, I know that most of these will get lost/mislaid within the first couple of weeks of owning them, and at £8 a shot, I can't see parents replacing them very often.  

So with help and inspiration from another guider, i've put together a record sheets on which girls can record their progress on a single page. These will be left in our patrol boxes in the hall, so less chance of losing them. Also means i can take them all home a the end of term and update the GO records accordingly.






Guides who complete a Skills Builder level in all 6 themes, plus an interest badge in all 6 themes, plus 5 hours worth of unit meeting activities in all 6 themes, are eligible to start the Guides Gold Award Challenge. If they complete this, they are awarded the Gold Award.  

It is intended that with the new programme, it will take girls 2-3 years to achieve the Gold Award. With this in mind, girls who have achieved 2 Guide Challenge Badges (ie. been in guides for at least 2 years), and have less than 2 years left in guiding (i.e. aged 12 or above) have some alternative ways to achieve the Gold Award.

For girls who have completed 10 (or nearly 10) of their BP clauses by July 2019, they can then do the Gold Award Challenge instead of a BP Adventure, and be awarded the Gold Award (instead of the BP Award).








For girls who have not started the BP, or don't want to continue with BP clauses for the next year, they can do 2 skils builer stage badges (in different themes), plus new interest badges (1 in each of 3 themes), followed by the Guides Gold Award Challenge.  They will then be awarded the Gold Award.










DOWNLOAD LINK: Doc and PDF versions of these files are here, if you want them.

Programme planning and girl-led guiding

Last term (and last week again), we asked the girls for ideas on what they wanted to do:  Four A3 sheets pinned up around the hall, and a big stack of postit notes divided up between the patrols.  The four sheets were titled:

• Badges & GFIs
• Activities in the hall (crafts, cooking, skills)
• Visitors or Trips
• Games to play

The girls were allowed to write their ideas (individually) on post-it notes and stick them onto the appropriate sheet.  They were also allowed to write 'Not...' if there's something the didn't want to do.

We got equal numbers of 'More Craft' and 'Not Craft', and equal numbers of 'More sport' and 'not sport' - so we'll include one session of each in our term plan (and perhaps in the summer months, split the unit in two for some sessions where some can do craft, and some can do sporty things outside, if we have enough adults.

The overwhelming votes were for 'Chocolate' (appeared on all four boards, many many times), and visits to a trampolining centre.  So, we're doing the Chocolate GFI this term and will arrange a trip to one of the trampolining centres.  And, in the interests of a balanced and varied programme, (and because a very kind friend has offered to come and do a CPR and emergency first aid training session for free) we're working through the first aid badge.

As well as these our badge and GFI for the spring term, we've also got 4 BP girls who want to run various sessions as part of BP Clauses, so we've allowed time in the plan for these. They include

- an international evening

- a celebration of a festival from another culture (chinese new year)

- a 'peace and relaxation' session (good luck with that one, will be a challenge)

- a patrol cooking competition

With this lot, plus a trip out to the trampolining centre, I think we'll be covering all of our five areas:

• Healthy Lifestyles – develop your mind, body and soul. It’s all about keeping healthy and happy.
• Celebrating diversity - meet new people and get involved in things going on in your area.
• Global Awareness – make the world a better place.
• Discovery – have new experiences and adventures.
• Skills and Relationships – build on your personal and life skills.

And all of the sessions will be based upon the 5 essentials

1. Work together in small groups
2. Govern themselves and make their own decisions
3. Have a balanced & varied programme
4. Care for the individual
5. Share a commitment to a common standard

AKA

1. G - Groups - working in small groups
2. U - Uniformity in a common standard
3. I - Individual - care for the individual 
4. D - Decisions - Making their own!
5. E - Exciting - balanced and varied programme

AKA

1. M - Making Decisions (girl-led guiding)
2. A - Activities (balanced and varied programme)
3. G - Groups (working in a variety of groups)
4. I - Individual (care and choices)
5. C - Commitment to a common standard (promise, law, unit rules, etc)

Young Leaders in a Guide Unit - how to support them?

What kind of support should we be giving to our Young Leaders at the guide unit?  They are not part of any other Senior Section/Rangers unit, so attending our Guide Unit as YLs is their only regular participation in the Girlguiding Senior Section, and in effect, we are their SS leaders.

These are the things that Girlguiding says should be part of the Senior Section Programme

• Follow the core Look Wider programme, including
• Understanding the octants, and phases of octants
• Ensuring the YLs have time to plan and do their Octant activities if requiredd
• Take on new responsibilities, e.g. become a Young Leader or even, work on the Young Leader Qualification
• Ensure the YLs are involved in unit planning sessions
• Ensure the YL's have time given and opportunities to complete their LQ clauses
• Ensure YLs are given dedicated leader time to help them through their LQ programme - appropriate mentoring.
• Participation in wider SS activities - ensure that SS opportunities from division, district, county, region and national level are offered to these members. This may mean Guide leaders attending these activities with the girls (if this is required at the event)

One thing that concerns me is that I am a Guide leader, not a SS leader.  I have completed my LQ with a module for the Guide Programme. I have not completed the module for SS Programme, yet we are encouraged to have a YL join us who isn't getting SS programme guidance anywhere else, other than with us.   This seems to be a bit of an anomoly in how this area works, and I worry that my SS YL girls may be missing out.  I regularly encourage them to join a local ranger unit, but with school and other commitments, they are understandably hesitant.

Also, as I am not a SS unit leader in Go!, I don't regularly get to hear about SS unit events going on and am not included on SS mailings. The girls (as SS members with email addresses on Go!) do get some of these emails, but if I don't get them as well, I can't encourage them to participate.  And everyone knows that teenagers aren't always particularly motivated to organise and plan things without a bit of a nudge in the right direction!

What to do?

The program over the year - how to fit it all in?

These are all the things we should try to cover in the guiding programme over the year.... I'm not sure how we manage to fit it all in, but i think we usually do!

The Guide Programme covers 5 different areas:

1. Healthy Lifestyles – develop your mind, body and soul. It’s all about keeping healthy and happy.
2. Celebrating diversity - meet new people and get involved in things going on in your area.
3. Global Awareness – make the world a better place.
4. Discovery – have new experiences and adventures.
5. Skills and Relationships – build on your personal and life skills.

The 5 Essential principles – During their time at Guides, the Guides will be encouraged to:

1. Work together in small groups
2. Govern themselves and make their own decisions
3. Have a balanced & varied programme
4. Care for the individual
5. Share a commitment to a common standard

In addition, we try to fit in the following over the a year, which help to cover the Guide Challenge Badge requirements each year

• 2 GFI's per year (takes a minimum of 3 full weeks to complete each GFI)
• 2 Interest Badges per year (usually 2 full weeks to complete each badge)
• 2 trips out per year
• 2 'Community' activities per year - thinking about others in our community
• 1 residential/night away per year
• Something from the wider guiding family - a division or regional event, a national challenge, etc- something to show the girls that we are part of a bigger guiding family.

To ensure variety and that every girl gets to do some things they want to do, we try and include these activities every term:

• Sports / active fun
• Craft activities
• Cooking / food
• New skills or experiences
• A party or 'let your hair down' activity
• A trip out, or a visitor in to the unit (to provide variety from the leaders)

And finally, we also need to make sure these things happen too

• Promise Ceremonies, Promise and Law activities - introducing new girls to the unit and to guiding.
• Fire drill
• Unit Rules
• Girls choose patrols, vote in Patrol leaders and patrol seconds (although perhaps the patrol leader should choose their own patrol second?)
• Girls update G-Files for challenge badges
• Assist BP girls in their challenges - ensure that sessions are available in the plan for them to run for their BP clauses
• Assist YLs in their YLQ  and ensure Young Leaders get appropriate 'senior section' opportunities - to work on their YLQ and/or to get SS Octants signed off, and to participate in wider SS activities.  Ensure that leaders have time to answer questions from YLs and support them, and give them appropriate guidance in their Leadership journey.
• Parent Rotas, development of Unit Helpers and leaders
• Girl-led guiding - time to get input from the girls on what they want to do in Guides, so that it can be incorporated into the programme for next term. So, feedback and suggestion sessions for :
• Promise ceremonies
• Activities
• Outings
• Badges
• GFIs
• Camp themes and activities
• Games

So, how do we fit all of this in to our programme each year?  

We have 5 or 6 meetings per half term, which means 30 to 36 meetings per year (typically around 33), plus the following out-of-meeting regular activities (and possibly other out-of-meeting activities)

• Winter indoor camp weekend
• Summer canvas camp weekend
• Remembrance parade
• Pizza and Panto night out on a Friday near christmas
• A divisional, county or regional event or day

I actually think we do manage to fit most of these things in, but only by being smart with our planning and ensuring we cover several aspects with each activity.  We do try not to make any activity too much like being in school, even when badge work suggests it.  I guess we can be reasonably confident we are doing a good job, by the fact that we are full to capacity and have a waiting list....but I still feel we have to keep on our toes!

The biggest 'conflict' is between 'girl-led-guiding' and fitting all of this stuff in that we are supposed to fit in.

Quite honestly, 90% of our 10-13 year olds would choose to do the chocolate badge, chocolate GFI, sit and natter all night, or race around the hall screaming and playing tag amd generally letting of steam.  They would would rarely, if ever choose to do any 'community' activities, or learn about celebrating diversity or global awareness. They mostly don't want to have to plan GFIs themselves (although they do like to be able to choose the activities), but they want the leaders to organise it for them - and take the 'thinking' and 'planning' out of the activity.

Mostly, if given a free choice, our girls want 'down time' when they come to Guides, a chance to switch off their brains after increasingly busy and tiring weeks at school.  As a mother of two guide-age girls, I can certainly see this in them, and I can see the value in that. But this does at times conflict with fitting in all of the recommended programme elements, PLUS all of the things they have to do to get challenge badges and suchlike.

I'd be interested to hear from other guiders (a) if I've missed anything here, (b) how you manage to fit it all in, and (c) how to deal with the conflict of 'covering a good and varied guiding programme' vs the girl-led desire to switch off their brains and just chill out when they come to guides.  What do you think?