Digital Guiding Magazine Survey

Please, please, please, take the survey and tell Girlguiding what you really think. My survey link arrived today, 2nd December, at 1729 hrs, from newsletter@girlguidingnews.org.uk. It only took a few minutes to complete, but it is really important we all take the time to feedback our views.
 

UK Parliament Week 2019

We had a lovely Brownie meeting last night focussing on UK Parliament Week and using the SW England Region  resource. Brownies started making their own jigsaws from Women of influence, p16, the brownies worked in pairs swopping their jigsaws once they had made the picture and read the information on the back. Second we moved into our House of Commons complete with Speakers chair and held a debate on which was best cats or dogs, the Brownies were very quite hecklers and had to be helped on the way - think the leaders really enjoyed the role play!. Third was the Plan a UK Parliament week for the Region, p18, amazing how some of the girls struggled with the math adding up to £500! Fourth was the Quiz, p23-24, which the brownies did really well at it was played as a fitting game for the chamber by standing up for the right answer. Fifth was the ballot paper with a few ruined immediately, with multiple x's! The winner was Chocolate Fountain, and a tie for face painting and cake decorating! Finally the Pocket Book, P22, was assembled but taken home to be filled in as we had ran out of time.
The Fortune teller, p25, was also sent home to do as the brownies liked the example one, but didn't know how to make them - hope the parents enjoyed the experience!
We spent so long time showing the badge work done over half term so we ran out of time. Lovely to have a break from UMS's & Skills Builders and the brownies really got into the experience of democracy.
Lots of ideas in the resource that can be adapted, and the bunting, if you don't want to use it again would be a good background for hosting some micro learning in your trainings?

Why interaction styles are important in training

There has always been a lot of discussion around Learning styles in training but more recently the suggestion that learning styles are irrelevant as a good trainer has to deliver content to allow everyone to learn regardless of their learning styles. Recently there has been more discussion around interaction styles and why it is important to understand your own interaction style to help you, as a Trainer, understand why you might not be getting your message across to everyone in the Training.

From the descriptions above can you guess what your interaction style is and what does that style mean for your training delivery? What can you do to ensure you interact effectively with the other styles in a Training? 

Training Record Books

I first blogged about Wiltshire North's Training record book in July when we heard all about it at The Trainers Support Group; at a recent training where I was observing, a leader had her brand new copy. It's interesting how many points are given for a Trainers Qualification and it's renewal. It's proving a really popular way to get leaders interested in attending trainings all for the cost of 3 different badges - a few hundred of each. When you consider how we have had to coerce & persuade leaders to attend a training over the years (thinking back to the 80's when we all had a record book and had to do so many hours training a year) all it really needed was a points system and some badges.

Silver & Bronze Awards announced !!!!

See Trainers really do know what's best...…. At the last National Trainers conference (not this years), I remember there was a lot of strong feelings about have a staged award not just GOLD and silver & bronze were actually referred to in a number of feedback methods both in the entire conference & in various break out sessions.

So I was really excited to read this week that the Silver & Bronze awards are being launched in January 2020. The full information, as it stands, is here:
https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/making-guiding-happen/how-were-being-our-best/updates-for-our-members/new-top-section-awards-coming-this-january/

In essence:

"For girls to achieve their section Bronze and section Silver awards they must complete the following criteria:

• Section Bronze award: a girl needs to complete any two Theme awards from her current section.
• Section Silver award: a girl needs to complete any four Theme awards from her current section.

There is no final challenge for the section Bronze or section Silver award."

Well done Girlguiding it makes sense on so many levels, and will allow so many more girls to achieve.

Promoting Region Awards

Lovely flyer that arrived today with my badge order from Region, it's good to see that saying thank you in a simple way is being so proactively promoted!

Do check out the lovely new international nights away, who hasn't been to Pax Lodge and going away with your section badges.

LaSER London Challenge

This is a lovely challenge from London and South East England Region, I've used it in a few trainings over the years but never seen the badge before so wonder if it is a new edition. The challenge has been around for ages and with half tern fast approaching it's interesting for Leaders as well as girls. You need to collect 100 points to claim the badge - the crystal palace maze is 15 points and CHQ is 10 points, it doesn't all have to be done in London e.g. using cockney rhyming slang in a meeting gets you 10 more points.

Who can claim their badge straight away? Its not easy to find on the LaSER website you need to search London Challenge.  

Risk Assessments - how easy?

Ignore the background collage and concentrate on the micro learning

 My afternoon session was to help Leaders with Risk Assessments, which was one of  the topics that came up frm Inset Week. I had a go at mirco-learning to capture the steps involved in producting a risk assessment. I recycled the penants from a Guide activity a few years ago, and pinched the idea of the LED lights (with 10 pegs) from another trainer using it for an ice-breaker. The 10 pegs are the absolute maximum I would have said for micro-learning. They are £4 from Tiger in a variety of colours.
I had a steady stream of Leaders asking questions about risk assessments a few did have a go at compiling one using the Level 2 ASS training pictures. Being Prepared wasn't widely known about, and was the most photographed item on the stall. Nearly all the Leaders who took the DYB Safety checklist test had at least 1 activity to follow up on. The most common being the safety risk assessment on the meeting place.
I had a steady stream of visitors. I was sharing the room with a stand on REN forms for commissioners, and in some way the topics were linked. Although unfortunately I had to compete with the classroom collage for my micro-learning. That stall had chocolates and I only had mints - lessons learned.

Safe Space Levels 1 & 2 reflection

Yesterday was my home County Training Day I was only expecting 2 leaders, but had 4, then the final number raised to 6 by the time we started. Boosted by the first trickle of leaders who are starting to renew, and trainers who dropped out at the last minute resulting in the re-distribution of leaders; resulted in a quick last minute move of tables. So all the preparation wasn't in vein, I did the following:

• Made new Volunteer Code of conduct cards to include the new clause about delivering the programme and extra line about sources of support to talk too.
• Shredded about a 5th of the powerpoint slides and corrected the facts in 2 of them and the grammar and punctuation in several others, some of  the slides were repeats whereas others had content duplicated .
• Ordered some 2019 pocket guides & new Region All inclusive leaflet for handing out.
• Laminated the Level 1 & 2 resources to use for the 6 activities I decided upon.
• Annotated the combined Levels 1 & 2 training plan.
•  Printed certificates, and by mistake I ended up with 6! 

Initially the projector said it was password protected, but with the help of another trainer that was soon overcome. There was loads of opportunity for creating Safe Spaces in the programme, via UMA's & Skills Builders. There were 6 activities to do in 2 hours 15 mins, so it did feel a bit of a sprint, I didn't bother with blu-tak but used the empty desks to best advantage, it would have been impossible with a large group to put the resources up and down on the walls.  I had to curtail discussion on a few occasions, but when we reviewed objectives at the end the creating safe space aim did appear to have been achieved. There was lots of sharing going on assisted by one of our Region Safe-Guarding Leads. The risk assessment writing was well under way as the Leaders worked in pairs to generate ideas with. I managed to get in a number of other resources including the DYB Poster and checklists & the Girls Attitude Survey, all captured on the photo below.

The guides who escorted me to my room, and took my break drink order were amazingly helpful and I was very grateful for their help. I must have been asked about 12 times if I wanted a drink!

Stickers at the ready for the target activity 

All thee other resources that got a mention during the training.

 

Gloucestershire Challenge Badges

Further information on both badges from https://www.girlguidingglos.org.uk/challenge-badges.html

Inset Week Trainings 2019

It's been a busy month for training, and I've just realised I haven't written my self evaluation of my 2 trainings for inset week at the very start of the month. I did the training plan this year, which was shared around the other trainers, and I planned the training along the lines of "open space." I was fairly sure most of the leaders attending would have experience of the programme already, rather than be attending from the starting point of having no experience at all. I was keen to make sure the trainings were planned so that everyone could get something from the training. I included the refresher quiz from last year but virtually everyone flew through that and we spent very little time reviewing the logistics of the programme itself.

I did a fair bit of research both on the internet and social media and also with the leaders that went on the trip to Switzerland - thank you to them for putting up with me. There were six common themes that kept recurring, they were:

1.  Recording Progress
2.  Group Work
3.  Girl missing an evening
4.  Programme Content
5.  Interest Badges
6.  Gold Award

I attempted to incorporate one of the activities from the Do Your Best trainers resource but on the first night that fell flat because it was obvious that the Checklists had passed a lot of leaders by, many didn't remember receiving the poster with their Guiding magazine. I actually felt like I was talking Greek, by the Tuesday I had modified the training and emailed the trainers delivering Tuesday's training. We acquired extra copies of the poster so that the training could provide an opportunity to look at the poster for the first time or at a bit more length.

Following the Open space principles, leaders had the opportunity to treat it as a café and get an extra drink if they wanted adding to the feeling of networking and we're all in this together feeling. Conversation was staying on track, leaders were able to share ideas and those that needed to vent got the opportunity to vent. Output has been recorded so that it can be feed into the forthcoming County Day and there was a request from a leader to have the feedback shared more widely. I managed to work in promoting the Region resource for UK Parliament Week, and two Glos badges- one on Growing Guiding and the Golden Years Challenge which have both been heavily promoted on FaceBook.

I think it worked well providing an opportunity for experienced and new leaders to come together. It illustrates how flexible we can be as a training team, that we were able to make modifications after the first night in order to accommodate a wide gap in knowledge that was echoed later in the week. It also showed the power of sharing experience around trainers when working on a shared goal.

The concept of Inset week does seem to be powerful, and is getting attendees but they are the same leaders year upon year. It also messes up my wedding anniversary which is also in the first week in September.  

Updated Volunteer Code of Conduct (September 2019)

Very telling, the 2 new sentences added to the revised volunteer code of conduct:

"All volunteers contribute to good programme delivery, whether you are in a unit role working with members or supporting other adults in guiding".

"If you have gaps in your understanding, talk to your local commissioner or adviser."

Wonder how this will impact on all the units that have been running on challenge packs?

Outbreak of Thank you badges!

This one is from WAGGGS £1 each or £10 for 10.

This one is from SW Region £1 each.

About time too - but who will be next?

Including All from South West Region

S W Region have launched a leaflet from the Inclusion Advisor-it raises questions to ask yourself around Joining Girlguiding, Risk Assessments, and adapting the Programme, so could be used as a resource on a whole host of training topics. The POC is via the Region Office for further support; it does point at the national website by searching for "inclusion".
The leaflet strapline states:
"This leaflet gives you a few things to consider and the contact details of your local Inclusion Adviser who is happy to support you further".

A Safe Space Level 4 self evaluation

Wow what a week of guiding - if I added up the prep to the delivery and writing up time this weekend, I have done another 37 hour week on top of the real job I get paid for!

The Level 4 was a Region catch-up day, made slightly more difficult because the national update on ASS arrived in my inbox the evening before the training so there was 3 pages of densely packed text to read and assimilate the night before the training, (and it didn't even include the changes to the Volunteer Code of Conduct), good job I had picked tht up already.

I had been told to prepare for 20 DC's but on the day there was only 9, which was ok, as that meant less scenarios allowing for more conversation, and ultimately more learning outcomes at the training. We couldn't use the laptops in the school, which was all networked - using the USB was easy but the drawback was that I couldn't plug in my clicker which meant I had to keep going back to the corner of the classroom.

As well as going through the relevant changes emailed the night before, I had amended the training to include:

• DYB Poster & checklists
• Girls Attitude survey (which were brand new to some of the DC's)
• the scenarios from the GDPR training in place of the slides, to re-enforce the learning (they took them over coffee to discuss) 
• the revised guidance notes for the programme
• the honest discussion template from the Girl Guiding website 

I can't fault the level of participation, they really enjoyed working through the scenarios. The only complaint appeared to be that they hadn't received the e-version of the commissioners book before the training. However, the local CC pulled out the stops and found the Trading order number by lunch time, which made everyone happy.

I really enjoyed the training, but as I had car shared I had to kill 90 mins waiting for the Level 3 training to end,

which added to an already long week.

Better move the safety pins!

I spent a very enjoyable morning updating my first aid certificate, by doing it 2 months early, before my current one expires, it only took half a day to renew instead of a full day if it had expired. Shame you can't add on the months lost, like you used to be able to do with a passport! I was surprised to discover that safety pins must now be removed from the 1st Aid kit - shame as that's where I always used to find them for bead crafts! Also expiry dates are back on bandages & dressings, after being removed, but as pointed out for a residential test the dates may be checked to see if they are still valid!

Guidance notes for leaders: Running a Girlguiding unit revised edition

It's exactly a year today that I wrote about the Guidance notes for leaders for the new programme, and one of my comments was to ask why it wasn't dated and now it has been - June 2019. It has grown by 2 pages, and is now up to 22 in total, and has much more of a feel of a proper publication rather than a draft one. There is a new section on page 9 which talks about the influences on the girls lives which feels like it should be part of the Educational Framework. The Moving on up resource gets a mention on page 16. Pages 18-19 are a sales inventory section by section!
I did smile at the section which said to let the girls choose the leaders name, but remember it should be suitable for being used in public! I particularly like the Appendix as it lists leadership qualities for the girls section by section.

You can find it here:
https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/learning-and-development/guidance_notes_for_leaders_2019.pdf
Beware it comes as a pdf so I had to try printing from 3 different devices before it would work!

Girls Attitudes Survey 2019

Moving up a Section

Another update from the Trainers Conference and now available online. It's been updated (June 2019) and renamed slightly to incorporate the new programme and as well as focussing on the how to use UMA's, Skills Builders & Section Gold Awards to move up a section. There are pages covering communications with leaders/units, parents & girls. As well as a brief outline of how to do unit transfers on GO, there are 2 appendices with draft letters for parents & girls.
The supporting Trainers notes provide a loose session plan with updated figures for a corners game:

9% of Rainbows do not move to Brownies
40% of Brownies don't move to Guides
74% of Guides don't move to Rangers
61% of Rangers don't become Leaders.

Find them at https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/learning-and-development/outdoor-team/moving_up_support_for_leaders.pdf there are also individual factsheets for each section.

Our Chalet, Adelboden, Switzerland

Just back from an amazing week in Adelboden on one of Jeka's final trips. This time was different to my previous visit in 2007 as we didn't take any guides with us, only a couple who happened to be with their mums who are leaders. Which made for a very different trip like a real holiday. We also didn't have a coach, as we flew, so by using public transport we saw so much more of the area. It was a wonderful week we visited Our Chalet and Kandersteg International Scout Centre, Bern, Thun, and Interlaken including a yummy chocolate show, several cable car's and a fair bit of walking. I had my mountain top moment when I received GCSE results on top of a mountain above the clouds and obviously celebrated with coffee and cake. This is our unit brownie bear who came with me every step of the way and wrote a FaceBook diary for the unit every night. Notice his Bern Bear badge. If you get chance to go you should take the opportunity.

 

Future Girl, Plastics, L3 Skills Builder and reply from a PM!

I wrote a few weeks ago about one of my brownie groups working on a level 3 Skills Builder on Making Change, who had written a letter to the PM, and made a poster asking for change on plastics in the ocean - completely their choice.

Today they received a reply from Theresa May, and I'm sure they will be over the moon when they read it in September. Just goes to show the power of the new brownie programme!

UK Parliament Week 2019 (2-8 Nov)

Can't believe it's that time again - my pack arrived yesterday- well both packs arrived yesterday, either I registered twice or I have received 2 packs by accident! This year as well as the usual bunting, voting box and pin badges, the pack includes some wrist bands which I think the brownies will really appreciate. South West England have once again put together a special edition activity pack. They have managed to improve on last years pack, there are more and larger colour photos than last year; and there is more of a focus on evaluation & debate with ideas on how to take up and down for the relevant age groups.

I particularly like the activity on page 18 (see photo below) which will appeal to all age sections with choices that will mean something to each one. Page 21 & 22 "UK Parliament Week in your pocket" is a good idea that could be adapted to a range of themes and even used for trainings and picks up the idea of conversation starters to take it even further. Page 25 is always a winner with a template for a Cootie catcher, which again are always well received with girls of all ages, and its not an easy topic to create excitement with! Not a mention of Brexit in sight which is itself an achievement.

Girl Guides in France

Just back from a short break in France in the Haute-Vienne Region near Limoges, this article was in a free magazine, aimed at the huge ex-pat community with second homes in the Region. Weekend guiding fits in so well with life in the international community, and I was really pleased to see Girl Guides had a prominent article in the local English press.

Trainers Resources Doing our Best

The Trainer resources for delivering Doing our Best standards have landed at last. There is a pdf  format available but they come as a zipped file including a folder of icons.

The main resource is 67 pages, page 5-25 are Leader Activities - 7 in total, that draw on the worksheets later in the resource.

Pages 26 - 41 are 6 Commissioner activities.

The resource is designed as pick and mix, where activities can be borrowed to insert into other training plans to illustrate the Doing our Best checklists. There is more comments than we have previously seen on provided Training Plans.

Pages 42 - 61 are a series of worksheets that relate to the above activities.

Pages 62 & 63 is a take home sheet with URL's for all the resources and an Action Plan template, which is identical to the one in the Guiding Conversation, but much nicer, and less heavy on printer ink!

Pages 64-67 are FAQ's to explain  the background to Doing our Best standards, the FAQs will be updated over time.

The third file is a 21 page powerpoint that can be adapted, and draws on the iconology from the Doing our Best poster.

The Guiding Conversation is also now available but in a slightly different format to previous ones. It includes an ice-breaker & 3 activities to get discussion going and the final page is a more basic  Action plan template.

NB When printing any of the above, there is a mix of portrait and landscape pages, so make sure you set the printer accordingly!

I'm surprised at some of the activities, after the message writ large at the National Trainers conference about micro learning and blended learning, these activities feel a bit more traditional and time consuming than I was expecting. There is no date or version control on the resource which I think is a big step backwards but there is a date on the Conversation.

I'm going to produce a training plan next looking at the new programme one year on, and see how I can best fit in a Checklist or 2 activity and report back on how it works.

Icons to represent the Five Essentials after all these years!

Strategy 2020-2025 Please complete the survey.

Please take the time to do this survey - look out for the question about boys, and what you are willing to contribute outside of  unit meetings..... Dear Pauline,

We’ve been busy developing a new strategy for 2020-2025. Lots of you have fed into this already through the strategy unit meeting activity, surveys, focus groups and events. Thank you for all your input so far – now’s the time to review where we’ve got to. Our strategy will be a picture of the future Girlguiding we want to see, and how we’ll get there. We’ve used all your feedback, insights and our own research to create a draft strategy. We want to see how well the draft ideas sit with your thinking.

Take the survey

Have your say by completing this survey, which is also on the website, until 29 July.

COMPLETE THE SURVEY

We’ll be reviewing the results over the summer and we’ll report back to you in the autumn. Tomorrow we'll send the survey to parents so they can tell us their thoughts too.

Thank you for taking part, Best wishes, Strategy 2020+ team

Trainers Conference 2019: "52 cards of Limitless Learning"

It was said at the conference that this is a new product, there is a website with some basic information here: https://imaginocity.co.uk/product/cognitize-card-game/ where you can find a video from Scott Leiper explaining the concept. This is the company's first product. I agree I can see how these could be of value in Girlguiding learning as well as a host of other learning environments. The website states the cards are out of stock but I suspect they are not yet available. Depending on the price which doesn't appear to be available yet I would consider buying the product. The description is given as below.
.

COGNITIZE is a people development focused card game that creates limitless opportunities for players to transfer their learning into cohesive action.

Boost the retention of learning of one person by sharing it with others so that they too can benefit.

COGNITIZE can be used for multiple learning opportunities. Maybe it’s a continuation of the discussions outside a learning event with your team or a colleague. Perhaps it’s a tool for a team away day, or even some quick-fire fun to boost learning. Whatever your choice the possibilities and opportunities are limitless.

EACH CARD HAS…

A LEARN to stretch your own or others development.

A SHARE opportunity to development someone else.

A GROW personal development video bonus boost that further enhances the card theme.

A REPEAT cycle to encourage players to share learning forward multiple times.

The cards are broken down into six categories of which Connect, Ignite, Engage, Enable, Empower, having nine cards and the Joker category having seven.

Trainers Support Groups

Travelled to Cricklade to attend the annual tri county trainers support group. We were a small select group with all 3 counties represented including 2 prospective trainers. The date provided us with the opportunity to share the output from the National Trainers Conference with some leaders who hadn't attended, and to hear how those who had been there, felt about it. We covered a lot of ground including:

• Mentoring training
•  Programme Training a year on
•  Impact of local by-laws on Training
•  Safe Space Training
•  Start-up Kit which can be ordered by trainers to show at trainings order here: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/making-guiding-happen/running-your-unit/starting-a-new-unit/unit-start-up-kit/
•  Inclusive unit timeline cards which are being revised.

I was most impressed by Wiltshire North's new training booklet which they have launched in the last 3 weeks. It's an A5 paper booklet with spaces for leaders to record their trainings attended, e-learning counts, and the inside cover gives the points value for each type of training. Points mean badges. Fabulous idea and been really well received by Leaders who are distraught that not everyone has been issued with one yet. There is no e-version (yet), this is the 3rd county I have seen this approach and for the cost of a badge run it seems to be proving effective in encouraging leaders to get to trainings.

First time I cooked my own steak at the table!  

Participation on a Plate revised

We've waited a while for an update on this resource which aims to assist Leaders in providing girl-led guiding and decision making. It's been around since 2013, the new version attempts to be inclusive & takes account of the new programme with lots of references to UMA's, as well as the Doing our Best Poster and Checklists. Sections include:

• Making decisions
• Coming up with activity ideas - aimed at programme planning to help the girls choose
• Girls leading themselves
• Evaluation
• Outside the unit - aimed at Commissioners, Advisers or Event Coordinator

Lovely to see tools like Survey Monkey, and Doodle getting a mention as part of girl led guiding, even if it does appear to be at the more mature end of the guiding family!

I particularly like the Top tips for girl-led guiding from leaders on page 10:

• Be persistent
• Try new things
• Trust in the girls
• Set ground rules
• Connect
• Influence
• Explain
• Show 

Appendix 2 gives tips for running focus groups on page 12.

The updated version can be found here: https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/programme-and-activities/participation-on-a-plate.pdf 

All leaders should have a copy available to remind them its the girls, no matter what the age, who choose the programme.