Fiddle kit at The Training Shop.co.uk

I had this suggestion at a recent training about the benefits of not just mints to help people's concentration but the idea of making a fiddle kit available which I understand is becoming common practice in corporate trainings. The idea being that small toys or items to fiddle with are provided for the participants to play with during the training. I had a look online and found The Training Shop at: https://thetrainingshop.co.uk/fiddle-kit-15-item. For £24.95 +VAT they provide a cotton bag with 15 items for delegates to play with including stress balls, bendy men, slinkys and Koosh balls. That set me to imagining about what girl guiding equivalent items could be used to make up a fiddle kit? The discontinued stress bear, the leader sat on an ice cube from a few years ago, fiddly key rings, bendy men region folding Frisbees and half a small football turned inside out after a few minutes jumps off the table.

Do you dare me - I've got just the back only need the items?

Fancy a set of  light & sound buzzers for £20 +VAT, I've already got a hotel reception bell and use it with brownies, guides and in trainings but I fancy these imagine how much fun you could have in trainings & unit meetings. 

Safe Space Level 3 Booklet order code 6995

20,000 copies of the A Safe Space (Level 3) booklet are now available through trading. Any

    volunteer may order them, but these are being provided to ensure all units have one copy. T hey are not being provided for each leader.

    Copies are free but subject to normal delivery charge, per order not per unit.

Further Reflections on New Safe Space

I have just about recovered from last weekend 2 day marathon of 12 hours on safe space training over 2 days - if I have to do that again I will take Friday & Monday off either side as it is incredible tiring and the only way I managed it was to go straight to bed after Casualty on Saturday night to get a good night's sleep. I was down in Bristol & South Glos, so only a 40 minute drive which helped as well. However the real plus was being able to use my own laptop with my VGA adaptor which meant I could have my notes for the important powerpoints on my screen at the same time - although by the end of the 4 sessions I didn't need them! So much easier and relaxing when the IT is easy. I've got the training times down pat now - the ones on the recommended training plan either side of the coffee break don't work for me. I have adjusted them, and get to the coffee break at a consistent point now. If I need to, I make time up on the feedback on the barriers exercise, as too much has been allowed and the answers can be so similar to both exercises. I'm also sticking with the 3 part scenarios for the 2nd laminated exercises as it diffuses the duplication with the later scenarios.

Lovely to see so many familiar faces and I learnt from a Peer Educator co-ordinator that the Free Being Me resource has been withdrawn, which I think is a great mistake. I did have one leader who was considerably overwhelmed and I accompanied her at the end to speak with the County Commissioner. Leaders were incredibly participative especially as they started off by saying they had been told to attend, but as the trainer I didn't get that feeling, the hours flew by with lots of relevant questions and engaging on topic conversation. Which is exactly how an effective training should feel, so I didn't mind giving up so much time. Can't believe how many mints leaders can consume but I believe they are needed especially in the run up to the coffee break.

It was nice to get an invite back to train on the new programme in June although I didn't appreciate the UHT milk in my tea as I thought they were trying to poison me - the milk drew the most negative comments I heard all weekend. B & SG also do the most amazing thank you gifts and I 've used my new travel cup all week, drawing comments at work because of the huge trefoil on either side!

The Outward Mindset

I've been reading about the Growth mindset and independently my sons have been told about the growth mindset at school; but last week I heard about the Outward mindset. The speaker started by talking about people are not the organisations biggest asset, but the relationships they build are the biggest asset. So an outward mindset helps individuals see how they might be creating obstacles in the work of others, and helps them change the way they are working and relating to other team members to create real sustainable results. Strikes me there is a lot that is relevant to Girl Guiding here. The outward mindset is promoted by the Arbinger Institute.

Safe Space Pictures

Output from Barriers to Disclosure Exercise at Glos

Room Layout at Hampshire North 4 tables of 5 

NB Risk Assessment table on the Left of the picture

WAGGGS Policy & Guidelines: Adult Training, Learning & Development, 2012

I read this report a few years ago and its been bugging me where I picked the up the idea of the difference between Trainers and Facilitators in a guiding setting from. Today I finally figured it out. It strikes me our new safe space modules require a lot more of the facilitation skill rather than the traditional training skill. See page 28 of the WAGGGS report:

In.addition,.trainers/facilitator.should.have.competences.that:
•. empower the learner to take responsibility for learning
•. enable a high degree of flexibility in session management
•. engage.and.empower.people.through.excellent.communication.skills
•. achieve high levels of creativity and innovation
•. enable.and.support.the.learner.to.be.part.of.self-motivated.learning.processes.

I think our current Training Qualification falls short on some of these criteria.
The full report is available from the WAGGGS -> Resource Centre -> Adult Training

More Reflections on new Safe Space

Down in Hampshire North and we were really well looked after. This time thoughts include:

Logistics - there was no register for each room, I gather because the list from Region was sent as alphabetical order not by class room, the instructions for evacuation was to leave through the fire door and gather in alphabetical order on the field! This meant the trainers had to sign all of the certificates and just see which ones were left after the session. Felt wrong not having a list of everyone present. Some Leaders thought they finished at 4pm so were surprised when I sent them on a coffee break which meant lots of frantic texts for them to sort out arrangements. The cake sale Q caused some late returners for the morning session.
Furniture - even though it had been arranged in a horseshoe I re-arranged back to 4 groups of 5 around tables it really gets discussion going, the mints are really handy and gives them somewhere to write. I also think it's handy to show this is a special training unique to a programme one.
IT - drove me crazy. The 1st classroom the projector didn't display the whole page so after I had re-arranged the furniture I had to move to a new classroom. I would rather use my own laptop as I had to put my USB stick into the schools computer which every 15 minutes of no activity shut down with my USB still in the drive. Hope the USB is not damaged and I'm going to have to check it again for viruses - its a real pain.
Temperature - the heating came alive for the afternoon session and morning wasn't as cold as last time.
Level 2 Worksheets - there was some confusion over the worksheets and in the end they were all collected in and the trainers didn't signed them. I was amazed at lunch time between the trainers the different interpretation of the refresher exercise on risk assessments we had all been asked to do!
Activities - I exchanged one activity "What next" for "Helpful or not" and by omitting the similar scenarios from "What would you do?" got a handle on the duplication.  I will stick with that arrangement going forward.
Flowchart - got questioned as the top row of boxes are not linked to the rest of the flow chart! Even the social worker present didn't know what the mysterious line in the box means!
FAQ's - there is a need for some FAQ's to answer the teacher and social worker questions with a consistent answer. Especially why do teachers  need to do this now and from the leader who was a school Safe Guarding Lead can I tell the school head if it concerns a child at my school?