Guiders Staff Room Part 3

Urgh I am having a look on a couple of other discussion threads (though yes, I should do the e-learning) and I'm not sure what I need to get, what I should do about the taster packs (I gave mine to another leader as we were suspending the unit for a bit) and as we'll have girls starting who are older and younger, what do do about new girls who've done nothing but aren't the youngest in the unit??!

OK I will try that!

OK, having been out of Guiding for a little while and due to start back up in Sept...
Please can someone walk me through the programme in absolute words of one syllable? Pretty please?
All I've seen really is the new launch emails and even they were a bit confusing. Why couldn't they tell us the basics and then the details instead of details/teasers first? (oh I forgot, this is GG we are talking about).

Gosh, ok, thank you.

It's old and new badges alongside each other for one year... then the old ones cease to be, with just the new ones remaining. The style of content of the new ones is very different though with lots of flexibility.

Please could I ask a question as a Mum of a Brownie?
If the old interest badges are being phased out by September next year, will any of them be replaced, e.g. Swimmer, Booklover, or will it just be the 18 new badges?
Thank you!

Someone shared the news round link on Facebook. Much better. www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/amp/44874048

The unit meeting activities look like the worst part if you can't tailor activities to fit the themes. I wasn't impressed by the taster cards at all

No they can start at the stage appropriate to their age/learning.
So for brownies you would start at stage 2 .
The idea is to get an interest badge and skill badge for each theme . So they can get the Gold award . The interest badge has to be related to the theme too.

Haven't had any training on it yet or bought resources, so forgive me if the answer's obvious ... Do they have to have stagecq before starting stage 2?
I do Brownies. No-one has 1 yet so do I need to get them through 1, 2 & 3 before Guides then the pace will become less frantic in a couple of years?

Yes girls can start the stage one at the age appropriate age .
So brownies would do stage 2 & 3. They can’t do stage 4 it’s capped at 3.
They can do Stage 1. So girls who haven’t done at Rainbows . For some skills badges eg First Aid I would think stage 1 is useful.
Agree can’t see them doing interest badges at home .
Also not sure about the content for the skills badge but haven’t seen all the cards. Hope they are not too boring or pc. Hope they really do appeal to our average girls .
Re additional admin not sure how much time that will take up.
Maybe we should meet for 3 weeks a month and do GO, Accounts , safeguarding. e learning each forth week!

The Rainbows camp one doesn't involve any actual camping at all! More stuff about knowing what to take on a residential, what food you could cook etc.

Beavers/Cubs start their staged badges at the most appropriate level - so Cubs don't have to start eg their swimming badge at stage 1 if they can easily do stage 3. But obvs ours are quite different!

I'm heading up to the HQ shop in a couple of days to get the Rainbow resources, County are giving me a free set but not until 4th September which is far too long for me to wait :o
I'm going to grab DD the Guide ones too, she's on camp all week so it'll be a nice surprise when she gets back.

Looking forward to seeing the badge tracker too. I've made a poster of how the Gold award/theme awards work for Rainbows, but I'm not allowed to share it because copyright, ho hum.

Not sure how the stages will work.
Girls come to us from anyone of 4 Rainbow units. They won't all have done the same badge at level 1/2, so how do we plan what to do at the Brownie level?
And if it doesn't matter - ie they can start at level 3 without having done 1 and 2, then what is the point of staged badges?

Yep mixology?
And Speaking Out - fine as long as you don't ever criticise any GG policy.

The camp one is exciting though!

Think I need a new spreadsheet if the go tracker has too many teething issues

I hear they will be adding a badge tracker, to be released on Tues - I'm guessing as they do the weekly maintenance. Would like to see a night's away tracker on there.

I'm quite pleased with the structure. Not so sure about a couple of the badges. Bit to faddy, and left me rolling my eyes. But my unit are good at telling me what they think so we'll run with it, and see what happens.

I think they need to add a section to Go to keep track of badges!

I'm hoping that the Brownies' staged camping awards can be done with indoor sleepovers & pack holidays. I hate camping!

I went to a new programme release day today, where you could read through and look at the new resources for all levels.

I think we're going to have to hire an admin assistant to keep track of which girl has done what. They couldn't have made it more complicated for Leaders.

And I doubt many girls will do many badges at home, as is the intention. We'll certainly still be doing them as a unit.

Posted also. Not convinced the op is listening, and the explanations of it happens in scouting don't help either!

I'm heading in... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3311831-Aibu-to-think-my-child-has-been-singled-out

Was at guide camp over the weekend. Was originally asked to help, but then the organiser dropped out due to personal reasons, and left the three of us planning & running the camp in 3 weeks. We did it, but are shattered. Girls had an awesome time.

Looking forward to getting back to my Brownies tomorrow night though

drspouse thanks!

Aarrgghh!!

I'm looking at organising my Guides' first residential...to our local Kingswood, next year.

I'm on the Kingswood site...trying to "activate" my account. Except it won't let me activate with either email address (I thought I had used my Rainbows one on the quote form thingy) and I suspect the quotes coming to two email addresses have confused their system a bit

Was hoping I'd be able to book and pay deposit on there too rather than speak to someone on the phone.