Inset training week and Girls Matter publication

Newest GG UK publication and cloth badge below

 The week before half term and Gloucestershire adopted the idea of an inset training week - instead of unit meetings all Leaders were expected to participate in a Leader training. Trainings were organised all over the County focussing on those areas who don't normally get the opportunity to a host a training. There were a number of other training topics but predominantly the week focussed on the new resource - which had a rather mixed response. The best being from a history teacher who is going to build some aspects into her teaching, the general conclusion being that it was something to dip in and out of to launch other activities e.g GFI's!

I was doing the Guide Section training on both my nights and got very different reactions in both of the venues. We had been given a common training plan to use on the pretext that some delivering the trainings weren't trainers. I amended the training plan to include Good Guiding is ..... as a way to feed back on the ice breaker and also added in other resources principally GFI's! and South West region publications.  Nobody envisaged working on the resource beginning to end, but there was good conversation on how to use it. I did self evaluation forms from both my trainings as there are some wider conversations to be had especially on the first evening. I covered a huge number of miles in the week over 80 miles and I was really tired come the end of the week. I want one of the fold flat cardboard flip charts as they are really useful! Hope next year I get a venue a bit nearer to home.     

Pack Types

Have you ever tried playing pack types? They are promoted as self awareness cards which are loosely based on Belbin's team roles. I had the opportunity to test them out last weekend at a residential training event and the feedback was positive and generally felt the cards were accurate. Check out http://www.packtypes.com/ to see a short video on how to play. They fitted beautifully into the theme of "Being our Best" as I was training on the softer skills around succession planning - motivation & participation through decision making. Lots of opportunities to promote GG UK resources but pack types was really good in helping the Leaders think about their personal contribution.

Reasonably priced at around £25 a pack and of robust quality - I will certainly use again in training, and have already loaned them out at work. Watch the courier used by the seller as they insist on a signature on delivery which is hard when you are out all day. Is it the sort of resource County's will buy for Trainers to keep as a county resource?

Inclusive Training Checklist

This was the title of a hand out from the Trainers conference last month. Useful if not common sense advice about how to make trainings accessible to all members under 3 headings of the training room, resources & activities. Interestingly the most accessible font was suggested as a sans serif one e.g Trebuchet, Arial, Tahoma & Verdana. I was always taught that Times New Roman was the most readable font, so I thought it was worth investigating. Turns out that for online reading a sans serif font is considered more legible than a serif font which Times New Roman is - so I will change my ways from now on.

The advice given on activities was equally as relevant for planning meetings as trainings e.g. have additional extension activities in your back pocket and support different ways of learning in those participating.

Good hand out  that needs a better title!
 

Trainers Conference 2015

April has been a fun month for Guiding and I really enjoyed the GG UK Trainers conference up in Staffordshire a couple of weekends ago - it was inspirational to realise there are so many dedicated Trainers across the UK. We were all very cleverly helped to experience what it is like to be a brand new learner at a training. My Saturday afternoon new challenge was a session of Taoism on the lawn between the bedroom blocks. I admit I was sceptical but I actually really enjoyed it and it was beautiful with the sun shinning down, and a slight breeze blowing around us, as we all relaxed. It also felt like a bit of a celebration too with a gala dinner on the Saturday night with an excellent speech. More to follow soon.

A Fishbone on Glos County Training Day

Example of a Fishbone diagram to illustrate the issues around transitioning between the sections

 

I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop this month on using a variety of techniques to encourage attendees to participate in discussion so I thought I would give this idea a go. At our recent county training day I was given 1 hour to run a workshop on celebrating a smooth transition process - it was cross section so I had to try and get something in for everyone. I thought by charting all of the pitfalls on the fishbone we could usefully use the hour to focus on the positives and the celebration aspect. However I was knocked off course immediately in that the preceding workshop overran so both I & the Leaders were waiting outside the classroom to go in. Which meant I didn't get time to prepare so was literally facilitating the workshop in the order it came out of the bag for life - not good. There was plenty of discussion but there were some very very experienced Leaders who had a lot to share, so it was difficult to get the majority of the group contributing,

 

Next time I will insist on either being the first workshop after lunch or having an empty classroom to set up in advance. I would also split the group for part of the workshop into their section to make the sharing of experiences more meaningful. From some of the conversation I overheard whilst waiting for Taps I suspect there had been an overlap with the content of the afternoon workshops and some of the morning trainings - it will be interesting to see the feedback forms.

 

The first training on "Good Guiding is ....." and Adventure & Challenges - despite being bigger than I had anticipated went really well. The groups had to overflow into the corridor to work and I had to trim material from the end of my plan in order to finish on time. The old GG book on Wide Games was a real hit and I pointed them to a USA site selling a copy for $20! 

Guide Challenge Badge - Unit Guidelines

I visited the annual County Leadership Qualification Training weekend yesterday to do the Guide section training. It was lovely to see so many new young leaders, and the enthusiasm was infectious but what was alarming was the percentage in our small Guide group who didn't know about unit guidelines! So I thought I had better check to make sure we are correct (we re-do the guidelines at the start of each September) and all the guides sign them. Here is the extract from the Guide Challenge badge online:

 Over a 12-month period, be a reliable member of your Patrol.

• Talk to your Patrol about what it's like to belong to that team and make one suggestion for improvement.
• Sign and keep the unit's Guidelines.
• If you have sometimes found the Guidelines difficult to keep, discuss this with your Patrol and make suggestions for changes.

Girlguiding Emergency File

Happy New Year for 2015!

This is a new resource sent to the main unit contact (and featured in the last Trainers' mailing on email). It is A5 size and designed to be kept with the unit at all times and needs to be populated with unit emergency contact details, healthcare plans & activity risk assessments. It also includes templates for Emergency Contact Information, Witness Statements, & Fire Evacuation Information. It's the first time I've seen the risk management flowchart, risk assessment matrix & members' benefits scheme so widely published - I do hope there will be some publicity & explanation to come.
Extra blank forms can be printed from the forms area within the resource library once logged onto the members area.