Guiders Staff Room Part 3

[Groovee]

Reconvening over here ladies.

That’s the thing, the girls did do the badges I listed (amongst others) at home, independently. The new badges, I just can’t see them catching their interest in the same way. I hope I’m wrong as I would really like to see girls achieving their gold awards but without me pushing them to do the interest badges and giving unit time to the badge I can’t see them being done (In the same way as some of the more obscure interest badges from the old programme were never looked at by any of our girls- I don’t think I ever gave out a circus performer, culture or finding your way badge for example).
It’s a shame as I do like elements of the new programme but really struggling with the lack of ‘interest basges’

We did a lot of the more obscure badges as a unit and I can't see girls doing similar new ones on their own. I'm not sure GG understand how that type of badge worked in the past.

I've just been reading the comments here about the new programme & am glad to see others are a bit about it too.

I'm not sure how well the Skills Builders will work - something like fire lighting (for my Guides, at least) would be a specific day to go somewhere and be taught the basics. Not something to do in meeting time when there's nowhere local to do it, & to get somewhere in time for Guides I would have to cut Rainbows short or not run at all. I think 6 or 7 cards to choose 5 from might have been better so we could tailor them for our own units since we know best how they work.

The UMA's...neither Rainbows or Guides were very taken with them tbh. I'm still waiting for pack two for both sections but not holding my breath for anything great from those either.

I was talking to my Mentor the other day from when I did my LQ as I was home contact for her Rainbows' annual seaside outing & we both wondered just how much of 'our' ( as in those of us at unit level) input was taken on board. And how much was just asked for as a courtesy so they can say we were consulted.

I'm not thrilled with the new handbooks either - they don't hold much useful info for the price of them & I won't be buying them for my girls.

I quite like the Rainbow handbook, it replaces the flip book which I hated (and had stopped using, since nobody seemed to ever look at it...). Equally I have a bunch of Rainbows with overly keen mothers so I imagine they'll dive straight into the interest badges, and once one has started the rest will get infected. However, I have two girls in particular who have very chaotic and difficult home lives, and if they wanted to get their Gold award I would need to run separate Saturday badge days for them to work on interest badges, they won't be able to do them at home.

I think it's a shame that swimmer in particular has gone, since that for me comes under skills for my future - I strongly believe that every child should learn to swim if they can and am disappointed that Guiding isn't encouraging that at the moment.

I thought I'd heard that interest badges may be extended in the future though, with extras added, so perhaps not all is lost...

Beginning to think about the new term. We have a district campfire in Oct, and every year I realise how few songs my unit know -only because we as leaders don't do the very often. So I'm thinking of doing a different one each week at the opening and closing, opening we teach, closing we remind & remember. Will see how it goes!

That's a lovely idea. Anything new is better than endless rounds of Alice The Camel!

Discovered there's loads of verses to "I wish I was a little round orange"

My full set of stage 2 & 3 skill builder cards just arrived, along with all the Brownie UMA cards and 30 badge books.

Oh crikey!!! Off ring binder shopping ...

sorry, if this has been answered already but I'm a Rainbow Leader and can't find out anywhere if the Rainbow Jigsaw (love, learn etc) is still part of the new programme? I haven't been able to spot a mention of it in what I have read through, but I totally accept that it might be there and I've missed it!!!

It's not- The new common programme across the sections, with the six themes, replaces all old section programmes like rainbow jigsaw and Brownie you community and world
:-)

Thank you @MillicentMargaretAmanda! I presumed not but wasn't sure

Erm it looks like I'm a district commissioner. 😱

Nice one Groovee.
I've just finished a 5 year term and have moved on to Div Com.

DC is the most difficult of all the Com roles I think. It's really a line management role.

I've had to deal with poisonous plants, allegations of bullying by a Leader, financial fraud, incompetence, and complaints of bad handling of a medical emergency. I even had the Daily Mail phone me for comment!

Good luck

Lol in the 5 years my friend was DC she only had the issue with a guide leader battling over parking with one of my brownie parents. Hoping it's just as calm.

Is that congrats or commiserations?

Hopefully it'll be as calm as it was for your predecessor.

@Groovee we'll be here with 🍷🍸

Congratulations!

Congrats. Just checking in. After a couple of years hanging around the edges, I’m now officially a Rainbow leader in training! 🌈

Congrats and welcome Chocolala

Welcome @Chocolala

Running our first activity from the skill builders tonight!

Welcome back @Chocolala Great timing, you're just in time for all the fun.

Had our planning meeting last night and we're going to struggle with the adjustment a little.

I’m doing a skills builders activity next week, along with a more general (but using similar equipment) activity city from the cards.

The girls are really excited by the badges. They are already planning how to achieve them all

Grovee - how did it go?

We're not back until a week on Monday (local state school went back late), but plan to do a few of the new activities this term.

I do have issues with a few of them in the skill builders especially, but as someone else pointed out, we never did the activities in the Roundabouts exactly as they were written anyway!

They went quite well. Tweaked a couple of things slightly.

Why is there always that one parent who kicks off when they don't get their own way?

She's about to discover that I'm not a pushover like the rainbow leader.

I think they get allocated the role by a secret, magical ballot :)