The hotest training I have ever delivered!

Safe Space Level 3

I have never delivered a training so late in the school year, nor in such high temperatures - it was 29 degrees when I left Gloucester at lunch time today. I also beat my record for youngest attendee at 11 weeks old, he was gorgeous and slept through most of the training, only waking up at the end. I can deliver L3 in my sleep now, and it was an experienced group of Leaders so there was lots of good experience to share.

I was able to use my own IT and my VGA Adapter saved the day allowing me to connect my laptop to the church Projector -they had a wall mounted pull down projector screen - how lush is that! I think all trainers should be issued with a VGA adaptor - mine only cost £5-£6 and it has saved my life so many times already.

The training went smoothly - the only notable issue being in relation to the EastEnders like scenario, where the leader is pregnant by another leaders husband. This is the first time the leaders thought it was nothing to do with GG and that it was completely wrong to have to consult GG!

That's me finished training now for this school year I'm going to concentrate on my PDP for the next few weeks and get caught up with my badge blanket sewing.

 

  

Risk Assessment word version

Whilst preparing for a Safe Space Level 3 training tomorrow - I thought I would check the website to see if there was a word version of the lovely new risk template instead of the pdf one I used last time and couldn't save. The 3rd option when you do a search is a word version which can be edited and saved - so much easier. Thank you Girlguiding it makes such a difference having word versions of documents.

Presentation Clicker

I've given in and bought this presentation clicker from Amazon for £13.99 - there is a huge variation in prices. This one appears to work well and comes with a drawstring pouch for protection in my laptop case. The one comment I will say is that USB receiver in the bottom was difficult to remove and in the end I had to use a tool to slide in and pull it out. Works perfectly with my Dell laptop and PowerPoint. I was surprised to find my local computer shop didn't stock any brand and was actually quite condemning about them. This one is from Hearmarket.

Wireless Rechargeable Presentation Pointer Remote Control Presenter PPT Clicker Laser Pointer Compatible with Windows Mac OS Linux Android-rosegold 

Getting Ready for the New Programme Training Plan

Saturday was the first time I had used the revised change management training plan and I was amazed how closely the training followed the plan. I didn't like the "Communication technology changes" ice breaker so I changed it for a reflection exercise as leaders had experienced the new programme pilot trainings in the morning so they were already in the right zone to reflect! They did comment the image in the top right of the slide which I believe is a wi-fi man in a deck chair looked like a chicken! The links from the official ice-breaker are a bit weak to say the least.

I also inserted a slide with the Kubler Ross Change curve as the rest of the training is based on that theory and if you don't explain the theory its difficult to make it all stick together. We didn't play the snakes & ladders game but leaders spent a few minutes recording the cons (snakes) and a positive response (ladders). Because the numbers were on the low side, only 7 leaders, it was easy to get discussion going and there was a lot of experience in the room to share, when it came to seeing change through someone else's eyes. We ran out of time to do the resistance & potential solutions fully - we did talk about some but not to the extent the training plan suggests.

Leaders had been honest at the start in that they were looking for a way to return to their units/districts and be able to sell the new programme to them. We were able to take the time at the end to reflect on how they could use the lessons we had just discussed when they got back home.

New Programme Pilot Training with aeroplanes!

Yesterday I was down in Bristol & South Glos for their County Day on the new programme. I was doing UMA's, Skill Builders & Awards in the morning and Change Management for the new programme in the afternoon. As usual leaders from this county are on the ball and familiar with the basics of guiding. We started in the main auditorium for the overview new programme training which was cleverly done with a stand up if …. activity. I was amazed that such a huge proportion of those present had been leading for more than 10 years. The new programme bingo was an effective interactive method to present so much information but shame so many people called "bingo" at the same time!

We started earlier than I was expecting and it was a push to finish as there were so many questions, many I couldn't answer, which is never a good position to be in. Leaders were struggling to get to grips with the logistics of how the new programme will work. It would have been so much easier if I could have shown them a Skills Builder, or even just had a statement relating to how much time an average skill builder will take for brownies. Also the skill levels really need a different numbering system to the activities in the skills builders; and next time I will start off with a statement stating these are different things. We also need more detail about the recording tool as time was wasted in conjecture. I spent a lot of time scrolling backwards and forwards between the powerpoint slides describing the requirements.
 
Top constraints on the aeroplanes were in first place the cost which featured on 11 of the 16 planes. Second was lack of leaders/adults to run different activities at the same time and third was recording of both individual brownie progress and when anniversary badges are due to be awarded. We did discuss solutions and I think there will be some illegal copying occurring! They also liked my porridge pot idea of saving badges up and having a termly award ceremony to invite parents and raise the girls anticipation in order to celebrate achievements. There was one new issue that trainers had raised at the earlier pilot, which was the number of risk assessments required in a term in order to complete all the UMA's and skills builders which I had never thought of.

A few leaders are planning to start in January 2019 due to concerns that the availability of the new programme resources will be scarce because the demand will be so great on July 21st.

Additional resources I used included the Volunteer code of conduct, Participation on a plate, Girls Attitude Survey and I plugged the Region Swebots resource by showing the intermediate & advanced instructions for making a paper plane.

It was a pain having to move classrooms at lunch time but I had help to put the furniture back. I brought my own lap top but used my USB on their network which was fine but then I have to virus check the USB every time which is a nuisance.