Any Guide leaders or helper around please?

[cheesypastatonight]

Hi,

My dd has started Guides about a couple of months ago. When i looked at the website i thought that they would be doing badges and activities that lead to badges etc. Last week they had a meeting to plan what they wanted to do and it has pamper evening, sweet making, games evening, bin bag fashion and other such stuff. The leader, who is a very nice lady and i appreciate her time, etc, said no badges this term? They didn't do any badges since Oct last year when my daughter joined.

Is this normal? It just seems like a youth club? They don't often wear their uniform either.

It depends on the group to be honest. A big part of the guiding association is for the girls to choose what they would like to do and for the activities to be led by the girls.

This is especially applicable to guides.

My daughter has been in guides for about 6 months now and hasn’t worked towards a badge. They haven’t had an external activity either except for a ‘chip walk’ where they were dropped off at the local shops instead of the hall and collected from the shops!! Other groups walked to the chip shop with some kind of trail or treasure hunt in the way.

Unfortunately I’d say groups an be very mixed in what they do. Some leaders are much more proactive in facilitating fun activities than others.

I’m an assistant leader for a rainbows unit.

It can be normal, yes (am a Rainbow/Brownie leader and cover Guide meetings on occasion). Guiding is meant to be girl-led and reflect the interests of those taking part.

If she'd like to work on badges, the Guide section of the GGUK website lists the requirements, and interest badges are meant to be done on your own. Go For It's are patrol badges so she'd have to rope in the rest of her patrol to do one of those.

Some of the activities you list can go towards different badges, too - sweet making/confectioners springs to mind for a start.

My Guides are mostly girl lead; so they tell me what they'd like to do and we do it, within reason. So this term we're painting canvas bags (again), making hair bows, having a Harry Potter themed night maybe, doing some Promise based activities, a random day pulled off an alternative calendar, hopefully a trip to our local Apple store.

We're not working towards a badge this term but we're trying out their choice of some of the new activities from a taster pack for the new programme.

It might be that this leader is trying to avoid spending out on badges until she knows what's what with that, or might be what the girls have asked to do & she's said yes. Or a bit of both.

If my girls wanted to do a badge this term, then we'd plan a badge together - last term we did three badges all based on their choices from the activities within the syllabus(es? - not sure what the plural is!). And in the summer term they want to do the Guiding Traditions badge, so we'll spend a bit ot time looking at and planning what to do from that.

I do insist on uniform unless we're painting or something equally messy. Then I give them the option of uniform or scruffs - so long as it's something they don't mind getting messy.

Wrt youth club...erm yeah. It does get a bit like that at mine tbh & I only have seven at the moment.

If you ask the leader I'm sure she'd be happy to give you details of what they're doing :)

I went to guides when I was younger and don’t remember working towards badges even back then. It was more at brownies that we did that. Random one but one thing I remember was the guide leader slapping one of the guides in the face when she was being a bit cheeky on a trip to the woods that didn’t go down too well at the time!!!

You may find that some of those activities are leading towards badges - there are ones based around chocolate, fashion, recycling etc. these are often called go-for-it challenges and are done in their patrols or as a unit.
But not everything is badge based. In good units the girls choose/organise most of the activities themselves (this means they enjoy the things they do).
And if your DD really wants badges she can choose to do some of the activity badges listed on teh web site by herself.

You could always swap to Scouts....

Bike - if it's badgesthe OP is after, I think my DD probably earned more badges in her first year or so at guides than DS did in 4.5 years of Scouts (although admittedly at Beavers he did seem to get badges for just turning up each week....)

Brownie leader here.

As others have said guiding is meant to be girl lead. While the girls may not be doing badges it sounds like they're doing activities towards their Go For Its.

While it might not be great that they're not doing badges (we used to do at least one a term) but the Syllabus has changed in the last 10-15 years so a) the leader is waiting for the new one to be released b) she'll know what activities gets the best out of the girls/works well c) girls really don't seemed bothered with badges any more, especially at a least a pound a badges it's a waste of resources for the majority of girls don't bother sewing them on (no sash in Guides so girls have to sew them on their top). Your Dd can do badges on her own time if she really wants to do it.

If your DD is enjoying guides, learning skills and getting new experiences don't worry about the badges. Once she gets to 13 she'll be able to do DofE (usually at half the cost than through a school), start international travel and at 18 she'll be able to get a full scholarship to any of the world centres for the summer. Looks amazing on her CV or personal statement. Literally every interview i've been to GG has been a good talking point.

Thanks for all this info. Perhaps I had the wrong idea of what they do at guides and her pack is just like others.

My DD is in Guides, she’d be bored senseless with sone of those activities. Do they do any sport or get out at all? She’s off to the local Ski Centre this week.

Our guide leaders are brilliant- they discuss with the girls and patrol leaders, and then come up with the programme and it’s always great.

I think they say X number must be out of doors and at least one community activity and things like that, but the girls seem really happy with the activities picked. I don’t know how they manage it actually - it’s always really cheap too!

Your daughter can always choose a badge and work on it herself if she'd like to earn badges. The Guide Leaders may have a badge file she can look at, or else all the badges are on the GG website. Her leaders can then 'assess' her and award the badge.