Register your child in good time! (Rainbows / Brownies)

[brownieleader]

Shameless posting for traffic on a new account but I hope it’s not unreasonable to ask you to please put your children on the waitlist for Rainbows and Brownies in good time.

www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-parents/register-a-child/

I’m a leader and I’ve had an influx of just turned 7 year olds applying for Brownies but we have a 2-3 year waitlist in our area so if your child isn’t registered by her 5th birthday, she isn’t joining! And I hate sending the emails saying so to parents as I’m sure their daughters would all be an asset to my unit. There are actually so many that if we had the volunteers we could open a whole new unit.

So please, if you’d like your daughter to join Rainbows (4-7 years) or brownies (7-10) in the future get them on the waiting lists now!!

(wait lists vary by area - my friend has a 4 year plus waitlist for her unit).

Also whilst I’ve got you - would love it if anyone was able to share their girls favourite Rainbow / Brownie activities as I’m about to plan the new term.

I know you said what do brownies/rainbows enjoy but can I make a suggestion? Do you know anyone with a guide dog?

The Hospice my mum attended used to have talks and this was one of their favourites. The man who came inn told them about training and being matched to their dog and a couple of funny stories.

And of course he would let the dog off harness to be petted.

I used to be Rainbows leader when working overseas. Lots of movement as the children came and went quickly so our waiting list wasn’t bad.
Mine loved a game called ‘corners’. Just need four pieces of coloured paper. Put the paper in the four corners of the hall. One girl is blindfolded in the middle of the room. Shouts ‘Choose a corner’ and they all run to a corner. The blindfolded girl shouts out a colour and anyone in that corner is out. Carry on until only one is left. Then they get to be blindfolded girl. (You have to say when there are four or less they have to choose a different corner).

I put my daughter on the Rainbows and Squirrels (scouts) waiting lists before she turned 2. The Squirrels one in particular...i have been told that people join the waiting list at birth!!!

I was actually just thinking about this so I will ask you in case you know the answer if that's ok. My daughter is in Brownies, coming up for 9. She is autistic and was deferred a year for school so I was hoping she would be allowed to stay in Brownies until her friends move up but they are obviously a year younger than her. Do you move to Guides as soon as you are 10 or do you think she would be allowed to stay until she was coming up for 11 and get friends were turning 10? I think she would struggle moving to Guides without any of her friends for support.

Talk to her leader. This definitely falls into the realms of reasonable adjustments that they should be able to make, but ideally should know about sooner rather than later so they can plan accordingly. In usual circumstances, my Brownies leave at the end of the term in which they turn 10, but I'd be flexible if asked for reasons like this.

I think Girlguiding changed it to 4 to "keep ip" when Scouts added Squirrels. But Scouts have four sections covering 4-14, and Guiding ghad 3, so the age ranges are bigger and maybe too wide. There is a massive difference between a preschool 4yo and a Yr2 6yo!

There are no waiting lists were we are. My nearly 15 year old has just become a Ranger and had no issue joining any of the age groups. She joined Guides post Covid and they were really down on numbers, only now recovering.

Guiding has been amazing for my DD. She’s really shy but she’s found her people at Guides. They’ve been to Switzerland this summer and met Guides from other countries, and she’s helping with Brownies and becoming a young leader.

Rainbows has always been 4 in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was 5. So changing to 4y also made it consistent across the whole of the UK.

Thank you.

Hi @Purpleturtle45 I echo what others have said - please talk to the leader and ask about her staying in Brownies for a couple more terms.

For my unit, I would probably say no but that’s just because I have so many already 7 year olds on my waitlist and I’d want to give as many girls as possible a ‘turn’, and by her 10th birthday your daughter would have already had her three years. But, if I had no waitlist then I would keep her without hesitation.

I would also bear in mind that because they move termly it won’t necessarily be a whole year before her friends join her depending on when their birthdays are - we have a big friendship group from one school at the moment and two are going to Guides Jan 2026 the rest won’t join until September.

Also, ask your leader how they support girls moving sections - in our girls final term at brownies we take them to Guides for a taster session and also one of the guide leaders visits brownies occasionally (usually when we need an extra adult) so that my girls get to meet her before they move.

Back when I was in brownies my pack was full of girls in the year above and below from school but weirdly none in my year - I loved it because the friends I made at Brownies meant I knew more people at school (and being friends with girls in the year above was seen as cool!)

We also need lots of volunteers to make guiding happen!

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-volunteer/register-to-volunteer/

I was a unit helper with a Brownie pack for 12 years. I still remember two sisters coming up to the leader one week with beaming smiles. Brown Owl asked what was going on - they said they wanted to put their sister on the waiting list - cue Mum wheeling a buggy into the meeting room, with 2 day old baby sister in it. They were so proud!

we would likely do this in my unit, and did recently in a similar circumstance. They have to leave before they are 11, but there is some flexibility. We find the age range of guides is very big. You can have year 5 and year 9 girls together and it’s a huge difference, so sometimes a slight delay keeps them in guides longer. That said, my colleague runs guides too so is very aware of the dynamics of each group.
it’s not a given though, so ask your leader and see what they think.

Can move up to guides anytime after 10th birthday and before 11th. My daughter is a September baby but her friends are all summer and she wants to move with them so she will move up just before turns 11.

This very much depends on the area. For all of our brownies, the term they turn 10 is their last one with us and then we move them onto Guides. Definitely worth asking your child’s leaders to see what their protocol is but I know ours is standard in areas with long waitlists (so let me repeat my mantra: register your child early!)

Cubs not Brownies but we me do take into account what is best for the child when moving up, but also whats best for the unit. We can't let one stay but not others for example. Nor can we offer a space in Scouts to a younger child if there isn't a space for an older child.
But we also make sure that unless they chose to go alone, there is at least two moving on at the same time. This summer we have 7 moving up, of which one is three months early so they stay with their friends.

We are a bit more flexible, our only fixed move point is to leave Rainbows term after turn 7, as that is our longest wait list by far. And we have flexed that for a couple who weren't ready to move up for developmental reasons, although we don't for friendship reasons. Brownies and Guides dont have much of a wait but my Rainbows group has a long wait, so we start at 5 to reduce the wait times.

If a parent asks for a child to remain past the age of 10 as part of a reasonable adjustment for a disability, then you should seek advice from your county inclusion advisor or HQ as if you deny just on the grounds of waiting lists, i think a parent could challenge you.

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-volunteers/running-your-unit/including-all/including-members-with-additional-needs/

"Some disabled young members can find it challenging to move to a new section, so we're flexible on the upper age range of each section. This means disabled young members can access the programme that's most appropriate for them and move on to the next section when they feel ready. The decision about when to move up should be made in consultation with the young person and their parent or carer.
From January 2025, the upper age limit for all young member roles is 18."

Now brownies can also stay in brownies even beyond their 11th birthday, if there is a reasonable adjustment reason for doing so.

Yes we’d definitely consider it, but it would have to be a compelling reason because it would deny another child the chance to join. But then I know how brilliant our guide unit is and have absolute faith in their leadership to support every girl so I would never worry about one of my brownies transferring and floundering. The only request we’ve ever had to stay longer was so the girl could be in brownies with her sister. We said no, on the basis that the younger sister was not even top of the waitlist so wouldn’t be joining for a while!

I would also say please declare everything when you register your child. We can’t make adjustments for situations we don’t know about and often it is so easy for us to mitigate barriers for your child. Examples in the last few years include making sure all craft materials are colour-blind friendly colours, recruiting a 1-2-1 volunteer for a rainbow and adapting games like splat to be actions only and not require speaking (honestly I’d recommend this last one even if none of your girls are selectively mute it’s much kinder on leader eardrums!). However we’ve also had children join where conditions haven’t been mentioned and one parent even said they were worried we wouldn’t take their daughter if they were honest about her needs which was sad as every girl is welcome in my units.

I would change this to 'make enquiries early', rather than fully registering them.
In my Brownie unit, I really don't want a waiting list full of 5 year olds - it makes it difficult to do 'succession planning' with Rainbows (who should be given priority as existing members over external applicants), and can mean you end up with spaces sat empty for a term or two waiting for girls on the waiting list to turn 7 as they enquired first. If we've got 5 year olds waiting, I'd far rather they were on the Rainbows waiting list, and then they could be offered spaces immediately when they came up. It also means that if you go to offer spaces, there's inevitably people who have moved house, you can't contact, or who no longer want the space (for whatever reason), which can hugely throw numbers off and make advanced planning difficult. (We've had a big push on advertising for this term, due to a gap in Rainbows moving up, and only knew to do that as communication was good, if I'd had a waiting list full of girls who weren't old enough to join yet, but who then turned down spaces when offered, we'd not have known we needed to do the advertising, and would have had lot of spaces free).

For a really busy area, I'd recommend getting in touch with the leaders a couple of years in advance if you're super keen - just drop an email or a message on Go (the online system), and say 'Hi, I've got a child who's currently 3/5/8 who'd like to join Rainbows/Brownies/Guides eventually. Should I register them now to be added to the waiting list, or would it be best to wait until a bit nearer the time, if so, when?' Then the leader will be able to give you a better idea of what waiting list look like locally.

I registered DD at 6 weeks old 😂

It's automatic
but they may have to wait for the next child to move up if they're tight for leaders in brownies
I just flex so I may have 1 extra for a term then someone moves up and I'm down to my target number

if you want to secure a place I'd highly recommend offering to help out as the reason they're limited is all due to lack of adult leaders and volunteers

even if you can't do every week offer to help with accounts or anything

As for fave rainbow / brownie activities this is in order based on how excited they have been when we did it, how often they've asked to do it again

1. fire station visit - email your local station it was soo much fun (fits in with brownies safety badge too!)
2. anything first aid related ! this is a hit with rainbows and brownies and you can use the skills builders and just work through them
3. flower pressing (you can use a heavy book if you don't have flower presses)
4. girl guide secret spy couriers sent messages via the rainbows and brownies from one leader to the other and then hid secret messages in old cotton reels to take home - add in simple code breaking if you have time (a great one for remembrance day!!)
5. fizzy sparkly flower potions (mix citric acid with bicarb and edible lustre spray then add dried flowers and activate with water)
6. Halloween activities including fishing frogs out of a bowl of chia seed frog spawn this was a huge hit!
7. using above chia seed goop make chia pets using blown eggs
8. decorating plant pots and planting seeds
9. anything outdoors. Mainly seasonal check lists and scavenger hunts
10. hape zome
11. anything with bubbles (rainbow courage badge we did )
12. colour change potions using cabbage water and turmeric as indicators and adding acid/ base like vinegar and bicarb
13. oobleck they love but it is a pain to clear up
14. egg drop challenge at Easter (link in with the inventor badge for brownies)
15. flying bats using 2 bits of string and loo roll holders (google this )
16. anti gravity cups using Pom poms not water to minimise chaos
17. anything with the parachute

In our area quite a few delay moving up to guides for lots of reasons

I have a brownie now who is 9 and she will stay with us for an extra year as she has some developmental delays and is enjoying it so much but I know in a year she'll be over us lol and ready to do guides for sure!

we also have girls stay for an extra term to move up with a friend especially those September- November babies !!