Guiders Staff Room Part 4

[Groovee]

Moving on from Part 3

Thanks @becles for your reply. Unfortunately the only contact I have is by email. I'm going to email today and ask her to get back to me by Wednesday or we will have to cancel, which is a shame. Luckily I haven't told the girls about it so at least they won't be disappointed.

Can you have an alternative trip o the hall for a skills badge day or games and indoor campfire day?

It was only an evening trip, just during normal Brownie meeting time. So we will still be able to use our hall and will probably just do some UMAs

@user1487194234 I found the online trainings helpful. I was all set to give up when it launched. Definitely consider going to a local training or roadshow if you can as I found that to really help.

Any questions just ask us.

I'm finding adding skill builder themes a chore. Why can't they already be added?

Found you all!

I'm getting used to the programme, although adding skill builders is a chore. I've also decided to go for a more haphazard approach to skill builders, partly because it'll be easier to cover when girls miss a session, rather than giving 21/24 girls a badge and saying to the other 3 tough, you missed a night. Some, like first aid will still be done in blocks. It'll also help with the monotony of some (influence, I'm looking at you)

We’re doing Live Smart this term. The only good thing that can be said about this is that we can then not do it for a few years, at least. Bleh.

We rewarded the Brownies with slime-making for plodding through “Guess Who?” - they were very good with it to be fair. And then they got to make some INCREDIBLY lurid-vivid slime. I get a bit excited when I shop for Brownies. There was coloured glue... Ahem...

No idea why they chose Live Smart - we did say they’d to pick from Take Action & Skills For My Future as we’ve done a Skills Builder from each of the other 4 Themes already, but SERIOUSLY?! Dear Self, please consider being less committed to Girl Led Guiding. I think they were drawn in by the promise of cooking... & of course we get to try to sew with 20-odd Brownies who mostly don’t know one end of a needle from the other & get in a mess with those craft kits that have blunt needles & pre-punched holes. Ahahahahahaha.

We do sewing once a year.
No more often.
Ever.

:Can you rethread my needle?", every 30 seconds, should be an official form of torture.

We’ve only 2 Leaders. And our DC comes if she’s free. (Pity we’ve a Brownie who really needs a 1:1... can we have a Circus Skills badge yes I know that’s the old Programme for our plate-spinning, juggling, epic balancing act there? ) We do have 2 excellent YLs & a fab Brownie Helper, but do not know about their sewing abilities.

Have a friend’s mother (even if my own hadn’t rudely died when I was a Brownie myself she achieved infamy when at school for the number of times she was sent back to re-sew the doll’s skirt she was making) coming to lead the activity (& providing us with the needles, thread & buttons) & am asking for any parents who’re able to help out that week.

Hoping between all that we will come through fairly unscathed. They’re REALLY keen to [learn to] sew & tbf I think it’s a v important skill. It’s just they could pretty much do with man-marking while they’re about it...

Hello! I am a Guide leader, and former Brownie leader (and Snowy Owl ).

Have been v much enjoying this thread, and commiserating in a sisterly fashion re new programme woes. UMA pack 7 is better.

for Marie - have you any local Trefoil members who could come and help out? Something I have done when sewing with Brownies: thread the needles as normal, but rather than leaving a tail, make the two lengths equal and knot it with a double overhand at the end - fewer needles need rethreading. V bright lamp, multiple needle threaders (train your YLs and Brownie Helper to use these). Chalking/otherwise marking a line along which to stitch is also quite useful.

You startled me there @ScopsOwl - we borrow one of those (my erstwhile Patrol Second) from a local Guide Unit sometimes

Our - very lovely - TG meet during the day (& have done for several years) as they’re (almost all) so elderly now they’re not comfortable being out in the evening. No longer really up to helping at meetings other than the former CC who’s still busy running at least one Unit - & in any case loathes sewing, IIRC...

As it is proper sewing as opposed to craft kit we’ll be able to double-thread, yes, which is a small mercy. Is how we were taught to cross-stitch in Y3, probably as staff-member responsible had no wish to be forever helping us rethread needles. (By embroidery in Y5 we were expected to cope with a single thread. Which when most of us had done no sewing between the two was...) Weirdly one of staff who helped teach said sewing may be coming to help. Because I live in a tiny village*. In inner London. Yes.

*I have this on good authority from several people who grew up [& in some cases, still live] in tiny villages.

Saw this about a Bronze and Silver award being added from January. Not sure how I feel about it really... would be interested to hear from others. We'd just got into the idea that not everyone gets the Gold and that makes it special. This will be great for the ones that wouldn't, but three-stage progressing badges is what we had before... And the admin! And the expense! And the fact that all the Badge Books I've given out will now be out of date

https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/making-guiding-happen/how-were-being-our-best/updates-for-our-members/new-top-section-awards-coming-this-january/?utmsource=dotmaileremails&utmmmedium=email&utmcampaign=109954044Discover%2C%20grow%2023%20October%2020

My initial thought was that it would motivate girls to start doing interest badges sooner than waiting until they are nearly at six skill builders. They still have to get enough UMAs, so we’re not going to be giving them out one a year, and with reflection I’m not sure it is going to be progressive like that. We should be much more likely to be able to give one or the other, by the time a Guide leaves, but I think the UMA requirement is still going to push achieving any of them to the back half of their time with us - they still have to earn the full theme award first.

It'll be interesting to see how it pans out. We're supposed to mix up the UMAs to keep things varied, but this could drive a distinct "one theme per term" approach to get things ticked off, especially in Rainbows where they have only 2 years.

I'm not your Scops Owl., Marie. Probably

Hope the sewing went/goes well!

I agree, some units are likely to run less well balanced programmes. But there's some that don't follow the programme guidelines in other ways, there's always going to the those units that want to do things differently.

I'm positive about it, I think it'll be excellent motivation for the girls.

Now remembrance is over its downhill to Christmas. Woohoo!

Ah, ScopsOwl, I know you’re not - was only a wee moment the name startled me.
Sewing was - as anticipated - v stressful, but all the girls managed to make a wee case. First Brownie to finish had never done any sewing before & was (justifiably) delighted with completed case. And my friend’s mummy has even said she’ll come back again & do more sewing with us; & said how good the girls were.

I’ve just (literally just, she’s starting this week as we’ve had space become available) had a 9yo move to me from Cubs so she’s not able to do transitional Gold but also won’t have time to do “real” Gold Award - am glad she’s now the chance to work towards an Award before leaving.

There are already Units that are focusing on a theme at a time in their Programmes; unfortunately agree that introduction Bronze & Silver awards is likely to exacerbate that. But then you’ve also got people who’ve given out Theme Awards they shouldn’t have (when there weren’t enough UMA minutes available) & as not everyone is recording things on GO!... There are always people who decide to play by their own rules - & I don’t mean making reasonable adaptions to allow individual girls to achieve...

Good to hear sewing went well. I'm attempting felt badges to finish our influence SB in a couple of weeks.

I'm sole leader, with a parent helper and 2 YLs, so I rely on my Sixers a fair bit. One is struggling at the mo though, she's not a natural leader and her second is clashing. Not sure what to do to help there... although writing it down suggests getting a lead sb out for next term.

Is there any scope for mixing your Sixes around, including changing the Sixer/Seconder pairings if there’s one you think would work better?

Breaking out the Lead SB sounds like a plan. Don’t know what the Think Resilient 4 Session is like, but wonder if that might be helpful if you can get someone in to run it...

We sometimes run an extended meeting (either if there’s no Guides, or we decamp to the Upper Room from the Hall) for our Sixers & Seconders - any chance you’d be able to do that? We do things like go over what makes a good Sixer/Seconder; what their roles & responsibilities are; how they fit into Girlguiding structure... plus cooperative games of course. Or even any way they could do that during a meeting when rest of Unit are doing something else? We have to rely on our Sixers & Seconders to mind their Sixes, too - so for them it’s a HUGE deal being one & they take it super-seriously. (One of my Seconders comes & tells me how her Six have behaved & what they’ve achieved & if she’s noticed any problems at the end of meetings where her Sixer has been away. Because she’s been responsible for them that week & she wants to make sure that she’s done a good job. It is adorable. Tricky when I’m trying to juggle several other things, but she is much better at coping with waiting to tell me things than when she joined Brownies.)

Good luck with your sewing btw.

Has anyone seen this survey for the girls on the types of Six or Patrol badges they would like to see in the future?

So annoying that it's not in pdf so we can print out for the Sixers to do with their Sixes at meeting. Will have to cobble together something on paper.

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/emblembadges

Ahahahahahaha unicorns ahahahahahaha...

Can you even imagine the drama there’d be in Rainbow & Brownie Sections over who got to be a Unicorn? (Followed q closely by designations of Pegasus & Mermaid...)

Re:the survey.
Why on earth do we need flower names?

I pop in from time to time, and as a Sea Cub Scout leader and former Guide and Young Leader.

On sewing, I thought I would be mad trying to get my gang doing a dewing task, but the other Cub pack do it once a year (early in the new intake year, in January, they do a night learning to iron their neckers and sewing on their badges). So I did a session coming up to Christmas last year where I pre-cut felt stocking shapes (about 2.5 inches high), 3" length of ribbon, and bagged up a mix of decorative elements (some large holed beads, a jingle bell for each Cub, and some extra ribbon) for each patrol, pre-threaded enough needles for Cubs+50%, brought a bundle of needle-threading loops with me (I very rarely use them, but needs must in this instance!) and asked for an extra 2 pairs of hands so 1 adult per patrol plus 1 floater. It was a surprisingly good session, with some really decorative stockings by the end, and ALL Cubs had managed to get a stocking put together regardless of their abilities before starting. And we have a very mixed range of abilities!

So it needed a LOT of prep, and making sure I had extra hands on the day, but worked.

We have decided though, as Leaders, not to run that this year but maybe next year again.

But a few were asking about my Cub cape, that I finally started sewing my old badges onto on our last hostel trip while waiting for dinner to cook in the oven. Your chat about patrol badges reminded me that I keep meaning to get a Kingfisher badge, which was my old patrol, but the badges were always sold out when we tried as Guides.

underneaththeash
There are a handful of flower Patrols at the moment - our Guides use them...

BiddyPop
Old Patrol badges sometimes come up on E-Bay, so it’s worth having a look there. And congratulations on getting the Cubs through making their stockings think you’ve definitely earned that couple of years off from sewing with them now

@underneaththeash
Flowers (and birds) are the original Patrol names for Guides. Apparently it was trees for Rangers and of course fairy folk for Brownies.
Lesley's guiding history site has a whole bit about them lesliesguidinghistory.webs.com/lists.htm

They are still used in Ireland , if you don't mind getting a replica rather than an actual vintage badge @BiddyPop www.irishgirlguides.ie/product-category/guide/branch-badges/

Thanks guys for the patrol badge options, I keep meaning to go to IGG for it.

We had wet weather cancel our planned shelter building session yesterday, so I got them to update their patrol logs (chaos in 2 patrols, some good work in the other 2, as expected!) and then we did Compass drawings to build on the map reading from last week. And as the Den floor is very slippery on wet days, we did the key game which actually lasted to the end of the meeting!