Look Wider - Out of Doors

I completed the Out of Doors Octant of the Look Wider in September 2017. Below are the activities I completed to gain this badge:

Phase 1

• Try a new wide game
• I organised the wide game on pack holiday in 2014
• Full details are here
• Punting
• As part of the SSAGO Summer Camp at university, we went punting down a river in Oxford
• Gorge Walking
• I have visited and walked through the Liechstensteinklamm Gorge in Austria on two occasions with my family

Phase 2

• Take part in a SSAGO Rally
• I was really struggling with ideas for this one until I spotted this suggestion somewhere, having just got back from my first SSAGO Rally
• I went to Feb-u-rally in Bristol in February 2016. It was absolutely freezing but thoroughly enjoyable - I highly recommend looking into SSAGO if you are heading to a UK university, even if you have never done Guiding or Scouting before

Phase 3

• Going Away With License
• I did my Going Away With License in September 2016 but it took me almost a full year to get all the evidence together and signed off!
• One step closer to starting the Queen's Guide though...

Look Wider - Leadership

I completed the Leadership Octant of the Look Wider in October 2017. Below are the various activities I completed in order to gain this badge:

Phase 1

• Plan and run a meeting
• I ran a Chinese New Year evening back in 2014
• Full details can be found here
• Find out about what kind of leader you are, and how you could improve
• I took this leadership quiz
• I then evaluated how much I agreed with the output I was given
• Organise a trip for a local unit
• I organised a trip to the fire station at short notice for my Brownies when we were unable to use our usual hall and the other plans had fallen through

Phase 2

• Take on a leadership role
• I was House Music Captain in Year 13 at school which involved organising the House Music competition (which included a whole house song!)
• I also had to do various other tasks around the school, such as lead tours and help at open days

 Phase 3

• Adult Leader Qualification
• I completed my adult leader qualification for Brownies in March 2014

Look Wider - Creativity

I completed my Creativity Octant back in May 2017. Below are the activites I took part in to get this Octant, hopefully this will help give you some ideas if you are a bit stuck. I managed to do this octant over several years, almost by accident, the only part I really had to plan in was the photo quiz.

Phase 1

• Learn a new dance
• I went on a SSAGO Rally in February 2016 and it is a tradition to have a Ceilidh on the Saturday evening
• A professional band came in and taught those who wanted to, how to do a few different dances
• Attend a pantomime
• Every year we take our Brownie unit to see the local pantomime
•  Photo Quiz
• I organised a photo quiz around the local area for my Brownie unit
• They had a series of photos and a map with dots on
• They had to go to each dot and work out which photo was taken there
• They then had a question to answer for extra points for each photo
• Points were also deducted for being late back to the hall (we had a Promise ceremony that night too!)

Phase 2

• Take an active part in a concert
• At university, I was in the orchestra and the choir
• We did 2 large concerts each year which I took part in
• I was on committee for one year so had a hand in managing the backstage parts of the concerts too

 Phase 3

• Clarinet Grade 7 
• I passed my clarinet grade 7 in March 2014

I'm back!

Apologies for suddenly going MIA! Life got in the way a bit and then I completely forgot about this blog... Sorry about that.

Since I last posted, I found a Rainbow and Brownie unit to help at while at university, joined the university SSAGO unit, have been on several nights away with SSAGO, completed 3 more octants of my Look Wider, gained my Going Away With License, and have done much more besides.

I plan on attempting to continue this blog again now, the first few posts will be updates on my Look Wider progress, interspersed with Brownie meetings (I stopped helping at Rainbows after my second year) and maybe a few SSAGO events too! My university Brownies meet every two weeks though so the posts won't be as frequent.

Fayre Planning, Banana Animals, and Promises

25/06/15

This week we had two activities for the girls to do. The first was to draw the posters for their stalls at our fayre next week. The other was to make banana penguins. Our two Young Leaders, and an Adult helped with that, by melting the chocolate in the microwave and allowing girls in a few at a time as we only have a small kitchen to do it in. I helped in the main hall by supervising the girls doing their posters.

We also had 2 more girls make their promises, and I helped the hostess again. This time we only had to make 2 black teas, which made my life slightly easier! Our only issue was that the girl doing her badge wasn't strong enough to lift the kettle so I had to pour the water for her. Other than that, she was one of the better ones I've helped, and was particularly thorough when it came to washing and drying up!

It was a fairly relaxed evening, the last of those we're going to have this term..!

In other news, I have been going through some more of my Look Wider Qualification and typing up parts I've done. I'm getting close to finishing a few more Octants, I think, and have plans for how to complete a few more Phases so keep an eye out for that! I have updated the Look Wider page so you can see how close I am to completing each Octant.

Father's Day and Promise Ceremony

11/06/15

This week, although Father's Day isn't until June 21st, we did our Father's Day crafts as the craft for this week didn't arrive in time (we're doing it next week instead).

The girls coloured glass jars and made cards. We bought some pens that would draw on glass and some small jars and then the girls were given free rein on what they wanted to draw on them. Here is mine:

The girls then filled them with mint imperials, and took them home to give to their Dads (or any other man in their life).

We also bought some white card and some stickers of cars. Each girl was allowed 3 vehicle stickers and 2 wordy stickers which they could stick on the card and then draw/write anything else they wanted around it. I spent a lot of time sat on a table with some of the younger girls, peeling stickers off their backing as the stickers were quite hard to get off!

We had 6 girls making their promise tonight, and two girls doing their hostess badge so it was a little crazy for the second part of the meeting. While most of the pack were tidying up, a YL and I helped the hostesses set up their decorations and cakes on some tables. The rest of the pack then sang a few songs to entertain the parents while I supervised the hostesses to make tea and coffee for the parents. It went relatively smoothly and then the 6 girls made their promise.

To end the meeting, the District Commissioner also came to visit, to present me with my Independent Living badge and certificate! We had a chat afterwards about how much I've done for the other Octants and it's inspired me to knuckle down and type up some more sections I've done to see if I can get any more badges before I go back to uni.

All in all, this was a pretty successful meeting, if a little chaotic - but who wants a boring meeting!?

Look Wider - Independant Living

It's been so long since I posted anything on here. I'm really hoping my timetable for next semester gives me time to find a Brownie unit to help at; I'm really missing it. But I'm home in time for the party with my old unit which will be nice.

However, with my extra time, I have finally managed to complete an Octant of my Look Wider qualification; the Independent Living one. Below I have detailed what I did for each phase so you can get some ideas if you're planning on doing this octant but are stuck for ideas. I found that starting university really helped me to find things to do for it as I was living independently for the first time in my life so if you're moving out soon or have already done so you will probably find you've done enough to get this one without really trying too hard.

Phase 1

• Improve cooking:
• I had to learn pretty quickly about cooking for myself after moving out. I knew the basics but wasn't particularly confident about actually cooking decent meals.
• It took me a while to get used to the idea of preplanning meals and remembering to defrost things before I needed them.
• I learnt the usefulness  of a microwave in these situations!
• I am getting more confident when it comes to timing everything to be ready at the same time.
• Update CV:
•  I hadn't updated my CV in over 2 years so I decided finishing school was a good time to update it, ready for looking for jobs at university.
• I added in all my GCSEs, AS levels and A levels as well as updating the paragraph about me to make it more relevant.
• I also created accounts on 3 websites to help me find jobs:
• LinkedIn - connect yourself to professionals in fields you want to work in.
• Mahara - create an online portfolio to show off your work to future employers (this was done as part of my degree course so it may not be open to non-students).
• Intern Avenue - find internships and summer placements in various fields.
• Research Equal Opportunities and their impact on yourself:
•  I am an Academic Rep for my course and I did a training where one of the sessions I attended was on equal opportunities but it's fairly easy to research yourself.
• I included some facts and figures and then added my own opinion and a little about my goal in life - to get more women involved in STEM subjects, starting with educating young girls on what is out there.

Phase 2

• Keep accounts for some time:
• I kept the Brownie unit accounts for a term as part of my ALQ.
• I also keep my own personal accounts which I included for this too.

Phase 3

• Pass driving test:
• I passed my driving test 6 months after I turned 18, having had weekly lessons and driven Mum's car a lot in between (which I think helped immensely).

I hope you find this helpful and I will get back to working on other Octants (or possibly my coursework - may be a little more important!).

University Update

25/09/14

As regular readers may know, I have just started university and was looking for a unit in the area to help with. I spoke to the District Commissioner recently and unfortunately they don't have any units (of any section, not just Brownies) that meet on a Friday which is the only day I can do due to other clubs and sports I do. She has left me her details so I can get in contact if my circumstances change but, as it stands, I am going to have to go without Brownies for a while. I will still be helping with my 'old' unit whenever I am at home and I am going on the Pack Holiday with them in a few weeks. I've even spent part of Freshers' Week organising the Wide Game that will be part of my Look Wider! Here's a sneak preview but a full post about it will be coming shortly:

I am also going to use this time to focus solely on the rest of my Look Wider qualification, in particular the Independent Living section, when I'm not working obviously!

Posts will probably not be coming weekly for now (unless I get really into my Look Wider) but I will keep you updated about how I'm doing.

Badges and Posters

18/09/14

This meeting we started off by playing a game. We asked one of the oldest girls, who's leaving in a few weeks, what game she would like to play and she chose Fishes. The girls were playing really nicely this evening and we managed to play two games instead of the usual one with lots of arguing. For the first game we chose the first two girls who asked (nicely) to be the sharks but for the second game, to make it fair, we had all the girls who wanted to be sharks line up and then Brown Owl turned her back and picked two numbers. We counted along the line to find the girls. It worked really well because then we didn't end up with 2 friends working as a team which is usually the cause of most of the arguments as the girls think they are ganging up on certain people.

When the girls had finished playing, we got out tables and they started making their badges for pack holiday. I had found all the pictures and printed them out and then we borrowed the District badge machine to turn them into badges. The girls who are coming on pack holiday had to colour in the badge for their six and hand it in so it didn't get lost, and the girls who aren't coming could either colour in a spare or design their own badge that they could take home that night. When they had finished, they could colour in a badge for a leader if they wanted, and there were spare ones, or they could colour in a poster to go on the wall.

While they were doing this, Brown Owl held a parents meeting for any girls who haven't been on pack holiday before so they could ask any questions and find out how we run it. We asked the girls to be quiet, which they seemed to be doing but then we noticed that some of the girls were missing. They were located by the Young Leader in the toilet, making quite a bit of noise so we had to lay down the law and say that everyone has to ask before going as opposed to trusting them to go and come back sensibly (the toilet is only down the corridor).

Other than that, it was quite a relaxed meeting though. I sat at a table with some of the girls and chatted to them about random things while colouring my own badge in. It all ended sadly though as this was my last meeting with them before going off to uni. When Brown Owl told them, the whole unit shouted 'nooo' in unison! I was given a card, signed by all the girls, and a Brownie Me To You bear!

 

I have taken both to uni and they are on display in my room, so I don't forget them (I wouldn't even dream of it!). I am returning for pack holiday in a couple of weeks and I have gone through Join Us and the 'Girlguiding - Movers' Facebook page to try and find myself a unit to help at during term times but, as yet I haven't got in contact with anyone. I am going to try and focus on my Look Wider too, as one of the sections is all about Independent Living! Hopefully I will find a unit soon as I'm not sure I can cope with too much time away from girls...

First meeting, second year

04/09/14

This week was our first meeting back after the Summer. We didn't have any new girls starting so it was a pretty straightforward meeting, even if the girls were all a little hyper as some of them hadn't seen each other for 6 weeks!

We started off playing a game to try and wear off some of their energy. We let them choose and they decided to play Wigwams (instructions here). I was surprised they didn't choose Fishes, as they did most of last term, but they all seemed happy to play this one instead. As this only really needs one Leader to run the game, it gave the rest of us a chance to catch up quickly as we also haven't seen each other in quite a while!

After the game finished, we got out the tables and let them get on with planning their stalls for a fundraiser we are doing in a few weeks. Fairly regularly (every 18 months or so) we have a sale to raise money for a different charity: in the past we've done the RSPCA and the Blue Cross. This year we are raising money for the National Star College after our visitors last term. The girls get into small groups and plan a stall together. We then invite the parents and friends along and the girls run their own stall as well as taking it in turns to go and have a go on all the other stalls. We have had a wide variety of stalls in the past; from the traditional cake sales and raffles, to the less traditional obstacle courses and fortune tellers! We let the girls choose their groups as it gives them a little more independence but we do suggest that girls who've never done a sale before have someone in their group who has, to point out things they might have forgotten about. I spent the evening going between groups, writing down their ideas and helping them resolve disputes in their groups. We have a nice mix of stalls this year; nails and spa, lucky dip, hook-a-duck, fortune telling, cakes, loom bands, among others, so hopefully we will raise a fair amount for the National Star College (usually we make £150-£200). 

We ended the meeting by handing out the Agility badges the girls earned at the penultimate meeting last term and then let them loose on their parents, still no less hyper than when we started the meeting!

I didn't end up doing much of my Look Wider Qualification over the Summer, but I am still noting down things to fill up gaps so I'll hopefully make a start on typing stuff up soon! I am also off to University soon so it may get a bit disjointed for a couple of weeks while I settle in and find myself a new unit to help at, although I will still be returning home occasionally and going to meetings, but I'll keep you updated on that as it unfolds too.

Stars and Promises

26/06/14

We started off this evening by decorating stars for the Big Brownie Birthday Fun Day in 2 weeks. There were two stars for the girls to decorate: one they will keep and stick a sticker on it at each station on the day and the other which will be given to a randomly selected girl from another unit. They had to write their name on both of them and then what they enjoy most about Brownies on the one that's being given away. They could then draw whatever they wanted on the back of both of them. I was talking to our Guide when there was a bit of commotion from one of the tables. It was only friendly banter but they all kept yelling "I'm gonna tell" so I decided to sit with them to try and calm things down a bit. Colouring the stars kept the girls busy for most of the evening and, after almost an hour, they had all finished and we started tidying up as our Guide was supervising the two hostesses for the Promise ceremony make tea and coffee for the parents of the girls making their Promise tonight. 

As I was helping sweep paper off the table, Brown Owl came over and said that she'd realised that she'd lost a Promise badge somewhere between home and the hall. She asked me if I'd pop home and grab another one for her. Our house is only a 5 minute drive away so I hopped in the car and nipped home. While I was gone, the girls sang a couple of songs to fill the time and entertain the parents. I believe they sang 'Have you ever seen a penguin come to tea?', 'Thunderation' and 'Cuddly Koalas' (lyrics here). When I got back, we started the Promise ceremony. We had two girls making their Promise this evening. They both did really well - one needed prompting but other than that it all went smoothly.

After the Promise ceremony it was time to hand out loads of badges - quite a lot of first, second and third year badges, some Adventure Ons, the two hostesses and two cooks to a girl who'd done them in her own time! Even with the interlude where I went to get the badge we still managed to finish exactly on time! All that was left then was to supervise the two hostesses washing up. We thought we were going to have to take the badge off the first girl ever as we saw her walking across the car park with her mum before doing her part of the washing up but then it turned out she was just taking her things to the car and then coming back! She came back and did her bit and then we could all go home.

It was quite a relaxed evening as all I had to do was sit with some girls and talk to them.

In other news, I've started seriously looking at my Look Wider qualification, now that I've finished my exams. I have done a fair few of the phases already (mostly phase 3s - YL, ALQ, driving test) but I haven't yet completed a whole octant, although I'm quite close. Now I just have some writing up to do and then I have to decide what to do to fill the blanks.

The Long Awaited Walk!

19/06/14

This week we took the girls up the local hill, as we had planned to do when we couldn't use the hall because of voting. When we told them last time that it had been cancelled, many of them were upset and several asked us when we were going to do it instead so we slotted it in to this week. 

We had a minor crisis just before as two of our leaders couldn't come due to family circumstances and that put us below the required ratio. Brown Owl put out a quick email to the parents asking if anyone would mind staying and a few said they would join us so we were covered once again! We knew that a few of the girls have dogs and their parents were planning on using the opportunity to walk the dog while we were up there so we knew it wouldn't be too much of a problem, it was just a case of letting them know. We ended up having 4/5 join us in the end!

We met the girls by the visitor centre at the top of the hill and checked everyone off on the register. When everyone had arrived, we had a brief discussion as to which way we were going to go; there were three choices from where we were at that point! There was quite a lot of shouting and pointing until we finally settled on heading into the woods. We set off with the Leaders and parents interspersed with the girls and the express instruction that everyone must stay within sight and not go through any gates without the rest of the group. At each junction in the path we pretty much left it up to the girls at the front as to which way we were going to go, except towards the beginning where the path they chose was back towards the visitor centre already! Quite a few of the girls picked up sticks to use as walking sticks and there were a few that were being carried by two or three girls that were pretty large. We're still not quite sure why they were carrying them - no one could get a straight answer out of the girls - but we let them carry on unless it was being waved around too much and in danger of hitting other girls/leaders.

We came a cross a couple of members of the public who looked at us as if we were slightly mad to be taking so many girls for a walk and then deliberately chose the path we didn't because we were making quite a bit of noise too! Our walk took us out into the open after a while and we were walking along the side of the hill. We had some wonderful views down into the town but the girls were mostly interested pulling bits of sticky weed from the hedgerows and making crowns from it! We took a break at the top of the hill and sat to look at the view for a few minutes to give the girls a chance to have a drink and sit down. We then walked back past the visitor centre into the Iron Age Hill Fort to do our circle and hand out letters as it is a nice large field (the fort is marked out by marks in the ground). 

We had absolute chaos as we walked round to the field though as there were a couple of cows grazing in there. Quite a lot of the girls panicked and thought that the cows were going to come and attack them. We pointed out that they were just grazing and were only looking over because the girls were making lot of noise but a couple of them weren't convinced and thought that they were plotting against us and were going to trap us in (one cow was walking across the only way out on its way to more grass)! We got them into a circle finally and handed out a few letters for the next few weeks and then were about to start Brownie Bells when a cow wandered too close for comfort for most of the girls and our circle collectively ran away from it! It then paused in its tracks because they were all running and screaming which made the worse as they thought it was going to come towards them. Eventually it moved on and semi-normality was returned to the circle so we could actually end the meeting. We then headed back to the visitor centre to meet the parents; quite a few of the girls ran to the gate and then were yelling at us to hurry up so they could get out of the field. Handing the girls back to their parents took a surprisingly short amount of time and finally we could leave ourselves. 

It was quite a pleasant walk, not too hot that everyone was tired and grumpy but warm enough to not have to wear a coat or jacket. I was particularly entertained by the number of girls who were scared by the cows and it made me wonder about how this generation copes with the outdoors. None of them seemed to know very much about the outdoors, whereas I, although I was keeping one eye on the cows, was perfectly comfortable walking through the field and being around them. I don't know whether its a lack of education they're getting or whether it's something to do with the fact that they spend less time outdoors - many of our girls have mobile phones, iPods, iPads and tablets whereas I didn't have any of those until I had started at secondary school and I spent more time outdoors around animals. Either way, I think we have to educate the girls in the ways of the outdoors and get them outside more so that they are not so scared of everything.

By the time you read this, I will have finished my last exam so I have the whole summer ahead of me to do Guiding related things! I am planning on working towards parts of Look Wider as I now have 3 months to kill before hopefully moving to university so I will keep you updated on my progress as I go too!

Easter ramblings

(Easter Break 2014)

I thought I would put up a post letting you know what Guiding related things I've been doing over this holiday (while I should have been revising for my A-levels!). If you're only interested in getting ideas for your unit, feel free to skip this one!

First off, I finally got round to completing my Adult Leader Qualification! Most of it was just writing up what I had done because that's the part I don't particularly enjoy. The only part I hadn't actually done was the unit accounts so I sat down with mum one evening and we worked through this term's income and expenses. It's actually fairly straightforward, particularly as I have some experience from doing invoices and that kind of thing in a shop. It took us about an hour to go through and copy things into the spreadsheet so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. And it all balanced too which was a bonus! It feels great to have finally printed it all off and put ready to pass on to the District Commissioner - I can't wait to get my badge and see it updated on Go! after all this time! For all you out there who are either part way through or considering doing your ALQ, go for it! It may take some time but, if you stick with it, the end result makes you feel really proud. And, an added incentive for me, it will make things a bit easier when I go to uni in September and can approach my district and say "hi, I'm a fully qualified leader, where can I help?" as opposed to just "hi, I want to help at Brownies". I know some units are wary of taking on university students because there's no telling if they'll commit and stick around but, if you are fully qualified, it shows that you have the dedication to attend every week and be a useful member of the team. That coupled with the fact that most places struggle with a lack of qualified leaders equals a win-win situation!

Having finished this, there are several things calling my name that I could do next... The big one at the moment is the Look Wider badge with its 8 Octants: Community Action, Creativity, Fit For Life, Independent Living, International, Leadership Out Of Doors and Personal Values. You can do the Octants in any order and the Look Wider badge is gained when you've done all 8 of them. Each Octant is made up of 3 phases which, again, can be completed in any order. Phase 1 involves getting a taste of 3 different activities; phase 2, developing an activity for 12 hours; and phase 3, undertaking one activity for 30 hours. I've gone through the various ideas and have realised that I've actually done some of the parts of this: for example, passing my driving test for Independent Living Phase 3, and with a little more work could get a couple of the Octant badges. I've looked into the Commonwealth Challenge before now but I still don't know what I would do for any of the optional sections so I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon. I've also been tempted by the Queen's Guide Challenge but I think that's one to leave until I've either finished uni or have found a group of like minded students who can fit it around their studies because it involves an awful lot of work. All of these are Senior Section qualifications, meaning I have until I turn 26 to complete them so there's no rush; it just feels odd to not have something Guiding related to do when I should be revising!

I also recently came across this blog on the overhaul of the Girlguiding website. As someone going to uni in September to do Maths and Computer Science, I am very interested in this and am keen to get involved. I have signed up to be a 'Digital Champion' (someone who will be asked questions and given opportunities to feedback on various stages of the design) which is one step towards being involved. I am also currently debating whether I should become a member of the Team Digital panel who will travel to London a few times a year and give feedback and present ideas to the team designing the website as well as being available for email debates and feedback. It is for GGUK members as well as non-members aged between 16 and 25 and lasts for 2 years. This is the one thing that's worrying me right now; I don't know how much time I'm going to have to put into this while at uni and I don't want to commit if I'm not going to be able to help to the best of my ability. I have until May 5th to decide and apply so I will keep you updated on what I decide to do.

So basically, this has actually been a very Guiding filled holiday! It's a welcome break from the continuous revision though so I'm not complaining! Next week regular meeting updates will resume but I may throw in a few update posts here and there if I decide to get involved more with Team Digital or do any of the multitudinous qualifications available to me between now and my 26th birthday...