27/09/18
This evening was another pre-pack holiday meeting. All the girls coming on pack holiday have been split into 3 sixes, which they chose a few weeks ago. They now need to make a badge to wear so we know what six they are in. Any girl who is not coming on pack holiday is given the opportunity to make a badge of her choice but the girls coming on pack holiday have to make the badge of her six. We had printed out pictures of the three sixes (swimming, horse riding, and gymnastics) for the girls to colour in. We all sat around tables colouring and Brown Owl and our Young Leader operated the badge machine. When I had coloured mine in, I went over to the badge machine and they were having issues. It is an incredibly old machine and it's starting to show its age so some badges weren't quite getting made correctly tonight. I took over from the YL and managed to coax it through the rest of the evening!
Once all the girls had made their badge, we did another clause of the Traditions badge and the Century Time Travel UMA - knowing the parts of the Union Flag. We first held up a complete version and asked the girls what it was called. One said "a flag" and then another said "the Union Jack". Brown Owl said "that's sort of correct, it's got a different name too" and then one of our newer girls said "it's only the Union Jack on a boat, it's the Union Flag on land"! We were all very impressed that she knew that!! The girls were then given the 3 parts of the flag to cut up and stick together to make the Union Flag in their sixes.
As we started that activity, the parents of a girl who was making her promise arrived. We always invite them about half an hour before we finish so they can watch us do a bit of an activity before watching their daughter make her promise. I took the girl who was doing her Hostess over to them and got their drinks orders and then assisted her in making 2 cups of tea.
Once all the girls had done their flag, we put the tables away and got into a circle. We still had a bit of time to spare so we played the original version of the Iranian Smiling Game which is the last bit of the Century Time Travel UMA. We had to stop before all the girls were out though, as they were very good at it!
Finally, it was time for our promise ceremony, and then I helped the girl doing her Hostess badge wash up and then it was home time. There were no left-over Brownies tonight, and the Mum from last week came in with a bunch of flowers, very apologetically!
Showing posts with label hostess badge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hostess badge. Show all posts
Monday, 1 October 2018
Monday, 20 August 2018
My First Impressions of the New Programme
As many of you will be aware, Girlguiding has released a new programme for all sections. I only do Brownies, so can only comment on that part, but I thought I would write down my first impressions of it.
Initially, reading the information provided to leaders in the latest Guiding magazine, I was pretty confused. There seems to be a lot of parts to it, which all interlink. It is definitely going to take some time to get used to which parts link together, and what girls have to do to get the theme awards and skills builders. This, however, is something I think we will all get used to pretty quickly once we actually start implementing it.
In terms of interest badges, I was personally disappointed by the choice Brownies now have. I enjoyed having badges related to things the girls do outside of meetings, such as musician, horse rider, and booklover. Personally I loved being able to get a badge for things I loved. In our unit we also use the hostess badge at every promise ceremony. The oldest girl who does not already have her badge is offered the opportunity to do her hostess badge at the promise ceremony of the newest girls. I feel like this teaches them valuable life skills; skills which I still use to this day, such as making tea and coffee, addressing envelopes, and entertaining guests. I do however like the sound of some of the new badges, especially aviation (my sister is training to be a pilot and there are almost no girls there), inventing, and space. A few of the others sound a bit odd, like mindfulness, zero waste, and archaeology. As a graduate software engineer, I am also slightly disappointed that there is no coding or computing badge in the new programme (yes, I have seen the Google badge which is a step in the right direction but very basic). It is slightly annoying that we cannot see any of the syllabuses online either. In our unit, we have a few badge books for girls to flick through and then we direct them online to read the syllabuses. Now, every girl will need a copy of the badge book, or we will have to photocopy the unit copy (not sure where we stand on that either). It would also be helpful for us leaders to be able to see what girls needed to do so we can encourage them to do them. Time will only tell if the girls actually complete them at home too, currently very few girls from our unit do, and most of the time they only get ones we complete as a unit.
I think the skills builders are a really nice idea, and help girls develop skills across all the sections. I am however, annoyed that there is a camping skills builder but no skills buiilder that can be obtained by going on an indoor residential. Personally, we do not take girls camping as none of our other leaders enjoy sleeping in tents and this means that they cannot complete level 2 of the camp skills builder as this requires them to put up and take down a tent. We cannot offer this as we do not have a tent or the know-how. I know we could invite Guides or other leaders to come along but it a lot of hassle to teach girls a skill which they would definitely never use at Brownies, and many of our girls do not go on to Guides and wouldn't use it there either. We will certainly be seeing which parts of other skills builders we can complete on pack holiday but this is also not fair on the girls that we cannot take. Our pack holiday house can only sleep 18 girls and we have 24+ girls in the unit most of the time (and woe-betide anyone who suggests swapping venues, there would be a mutiny amongst the girls!). In the old programme, there was a badge for each and I am disappointed this has not stayed the same, and have emailed Guiding with that feedback.
Having read the magazine, and looked on GO, it also appears that the only activities you are allowed to do towards the 4 hours for the theme awards are the ones on the Unit Meeting Activity cards. I agree that grab-and-go activities are incredibly helpful, especially for leaders that do not have the time to plan anything else, or other plans have fallen through. However, I feel very restricted by being forced to use them. I have been going to Brownies with Mum since I was a few days old, and she has been doing Brownies for over 30 years and we are both more than capable of creating our own activities that also fit the theme. I have emailed Guiding asking them to clarify, and give my feedback.
I do like the idea of the anniversary badges, however I am not a fan of the colours (the girls may disagree!). The system on GO also doesn't seem to be quite right either, as short gaps between girls being removed from the Rainbow list and added to the Brownie one seem to be counted as time outside of guiding which isn't fair on the girls. I also can't quite see why GO lists times as a decimal number of years, instead of years and months which would be much more intuitive!
Additionally, on a personal note, I am disappointed that the Look Wider badges are being stopped too. I have thoroughly enjoyed working towards mine, and fully intend on finishing them (my District Commissioner has already said she will buy me the 4 badges I am missing ready for when I do complete them). I can see the logic that they are overhauling the Senior Section and splitting it into Rangers and 18-25 year olds but I feel like those of us who had already started the Look Wider should be allowed to continue until we finish or turn 26. I have put at least 5 years work into it now, and am only missing a couple of parts of each Octant (you can see how close I am here) and I'm sure many other girls are in the same situation so it would be a shame for us to miss out due to a technicality.
Reading back over this, it feels very negative. I guess change is hard! I will hopefully find it much easier to get my head around once we have started running this new programme, and maybe the girls will find it much better than the old version. As with all programme changes, we will eventually forget how it used to be and get used to the new version, I guess. After all, the new girls will not know any different!
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my initial reaction? You can email any suggestions and thoughts to ourjourney@girlguiding.org.uk.
Initially, reading the information provided to leaders in the latest Guiding magazine, I was pretty confused. There seems to be a lot of parts to it, which all interlink. It is definitely going to take some time to get used to which parts link together, and what girls have to do to get the theme awards and skills builders. This, however, is something I think we will all get used to pretty quickly once we actually start implementing it.
In terms of interest badges, I was personally disappointed by the choice Brownies now have. I enjoyed having badges related to things the girls do outside of meetings, such as musician, horse rider, and booklover. Personally I loved being able to get a badge for things I loved. In our unit we also use the hostess badge at every promise ceremony. The oldest girl who does not already have her badge is offered the opportunity to do her hostess badge at the promise ceremony of the newest girls. I feel like this teaches them valuable life skills; skills which I still use to this day, such as making tea and coffee, addressing envelopes, and entertaining guests. I do however like the sound of some of the new badges, especially aviation (my sister is training to be a pilot and there are almost no girls there), inventing, and space. A few of the others sound a bit odd, like mindfulness, zero waste, and archaeology. As a graduate software engineer, I am also slightly disappointed that there is no coding or computing badge in the new programme (yes, I have seen the Google badge which is a step in the right direction but very basic). It is slightly annoying that we cannot see any of the syllabuses online either. In our unit, we have a few badge books for girls to flick through and then we direct them online to read the syllabuses. Now, every girl will need a copy of the badge book, or we will have to photocopy the unit copy (not sure where we stand on that either). It would also be helpful for us leaders to be able to see what girls needed to do so we can encourage them to do them. Time will only tell if the girls actually complete them at home too, currently very few girls from our unit do, and most of the time they only get ones we complete as a unit.
I think the skills builders are a really nice idea, and help girls develop skills across all the sections. I am however, annoyed that there is a camping skills builder but no skills buiilder that can be obtained by going on an indoor residential. Personally, we do not take girls camping as none of our other leaders enjoy sleeping in tents and this means that they cannot complete level 2 of the camp skills builder as this requires them to put up and take down a tent. We cannot offer this as we do not have a tent or the know-how. I know we could invite Guides or other leaders to come along but it a lot of hassle to teach girls a skill which they would definitely never use at Brownies, and many of our girls do not go on to Guides and wouldn't use it there either. We will certainly be seeing which parts of other skills builders we can complete on pack holiday but this is also not fair on the girls that we cannot take. Our pack holiday house can only sleep 18 girls and we have 24+ girls in the unit most of the time (and woe-betide anyone who suggests swapping venues, there would be a mutiny amongst the girls!). In the old programme, there was a badge for each and I am disappointed this has not stayed the same, and have emailed Guiding with that feedback.
Having read the magazine, and looked on GO, it also appears that the only activities you are allowed to do towards the 4 hours for the theme awards are the ones on the Unit Meeting Activity cards. I agree that grab-and-go activities are incredibly helpful, especially for leaders that do not have the time to plan anything else, or other plans have fallen through. However, I feel very restricted by being forced to use them. I have been going to Brownies with Mum since I was a few days old, and she has been doing Brownies for over 30 years and we are both more than capable of creating our own activities that also fit the theme. I have emailed Guiding asking them to clarify, and give my feedback.
I do like the idea of the anniversary badges, however I am not a fan of the colours (the girls may disagree!). The system on GO also doesn't seem to be quite right either, as short gaps between girls being removed from the Rainbow list and added to the Brownie one seem to be counted as time outside of guiding which isn't fair on the girls. I also can't quite see why GO lists times as a decimal number of years, instead of years and months which would be much more intuitive!
Additionally, on a personal note, I am disappointed that the Look Wider badges are being stopped too. I have thoroughly enjoyed working towards mine, and fully intend on finishing them (my District Commissioner has already said she will buy me the 4 badges I am missing ready for when I do complete them). I can see the logic that they are overhauling the Senior Section and splitting it into Rangers and 18-25 year olds but I feel like those of us who had already started the Look Wider should be allowed to continue until we finish or turn 26. I have put at least 5 years work into it now, and am only missing a couple of parts of each Octant (you can see how close I am here) and I'm sure many other girls are in the same situation so it would be a shame for us to miss out due to a technicality.
Reading back over this, it feels very negative. I guess change is hard! I will hopefully find it much easier to get my head around once we have started running this new programme, and maybe the girls will find it much better than the old version. As with all programme changes, we will eventually forget how it used to be and get used to the new version, I guess. After all, the new girls will not know any different!
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my initial reaction? You can email any suggestions and thoughts to ourjourney@girlguiding.org.uk.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
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!?
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!?
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