Brownies take the lead
How we planned a Brownie murder mystery
Brownies take the lead
How we planned a Brownie murder mystery
Brownies Ria and Anora share their tips on how girls can plan and run their own unit meetings
Great guiding puts girls in the lead. It’s one of the 5 essentials of our programme - ‘encouraging self-government and decision-making’. When we empower girls to make decisions, we allow the space and safety to try things, make mistakes and learn from them without pressure. As volunteers, you do all this all the time, for all ages. Whether it’s allowing girls to vote on which themes they want to focus on for the term, or giving Sixers specific jobs in the unit, it can make a big difference to girls’ confidence.
Girls of all ages can take the lead in Girlguiding. But if you volunteer with a younger section, it can be hard to judge when to give them the support, and when to step back and give them space to do their own thing.
Brownie leader Allison, otherwise known as Hedwig, got in touch with us to share how proud she was of Brownies Ria and Anora for taking the lead in their unit, and planning two of their own sessions from start to finish.
We caught up with Ria to talk about how they went about it, and what advice she has to help other girls in guiding take the lead.
Hey Ria! First of all, how old are you, and how long have you been in guiding?
'I’m 10 years old, and I’ve been in Brownies for about 3 years. My friend Dinesh invited me for "bring a friend" and I really loved it.'
What’s some of your favourite Brownie activities you’ve done?
'I like food activities - like the time we made pizza. Everyone kept trying to sneak into the kitchen to eat some cheese because it tasted really good.'
So whose idea was it to try and organise your own Brownie meetings? How did it happen?
'Anora and I both knew that we wanted to do it. We thought it would be fun to plan a meeting, and then we found out it’s actually a step toward getting your Brownie Gold Award. We decided to do a murder mystery, because a lot of people like them, and in Brownies we really like playing "wink murder".'
How did you decide who was doing what?
'We each gave ourselves a role. So I was going to write the script, and Anora was going to plan what happened to the characters, and lay out what personality they had. It was about Brownie Bear going missing - the Brownies had to find out who took him, and how they did it. We had to come up with different characters to choose from.
It was good to have a checklist so we didn’t forget anything. If you’re planning your own meeting, maybe pin it up on your bedroom wall or somewhere, and just check it off every time you’ve completed something.'
And did the plan change at all as you were working on it?
'Yeah, it changed a lot. We decided it was a bit too long. It had to fit into our meeting, so we took a few things away, and a few characters. The more you start planning it the more you realise that things might need to change. Because you need to think about the budget and how much time you have.'
Ria and Anora made their own badges to mark the murder mystery
Ria and Anora take charge
How did it go?
'Not everything went to plan, but most of it did! And it was really nice, so we decided to do another one. This one was about Christmas - the Brownies had to do different activities to find Santa. In the first activity they had to decorate gingerbread cookies for a friend and themselves, and then they had to learn a dance from the Sugar Plum Fairy to find candy canes. And then they made Secret Santa presents for each other.'
Sounds like you put a big emphasis on having the Brownies make things for each other. Was that something you talked about?
'Yeah, we even made our own badges for the murder mystery - we really wanted to make sure everyone had something to take home, to remind them of the day.'
That’s so smart! And what did you learn from planning those 2 meetings?
'Not everything always goes to plan, but that’s ok. There are other people who have planned Brownie activities – they’ve probably also got it wrong. You’re not the first one.'
Why do you think it’s important that girls like you get opportunities to take the lead?
'It can help you with your future, when you’re a grown up, and you’re senior in what you do, and you’re told to lead a meeting, you can think, “I remember when I did this in Girlguiding.” I can do this without panicking. And it’s useful if you’re ever going to do public speaking. And because we both wrote some of the scripts it also help with writing skills and making good vocabulary choices.'
What’s your number one piece of advice to any girl or Brownie who’s feeling a bit nervous about taking the lead?
'You are unique, and you have the power to change things, even though it’s maybe something very little. If you ever want to plan something really big, start with something small and then build up. And don’t give up on your dreams.'
Ria gives the Brownies some clues
The Brownies try and solve the puzzle!
Thoughts from Hedwig
‘Ria and Anora did such a great job planning their meetings. They’re really organised and driven, and they worked together so well as a team.
‘We always give girls choices in how they complete different activities, to give them more confidence. And when we plan meetings, we often try and have a 10 to 15 minute slot where Brownies can lead a game or a song. And those little moments of leadership built up to the point where they asked to run a whole unit meeting.
‘As a leader, I love working with kids who are smarter than me – when they’re doing something well, it’s such a nice feeling. I like them to feel empowered, and I like to have authority as the leader, but I don’t want to be in charge and have control. I think empowering girls to lead is about trying to create a safe space for them to learn, and the Girlguiding programme gives us leaders the tools to do it. I would rather be a guiding light amongst the masses of stars in the milky way than the dominant, but lone star in a dark sky.’
Check out our website for more advice about involving girls in decision-making and planning. Our ‘participation on a plate’ resource offers a range of activities to make sure girls can take the lead in all aspects of guiding.
Are there any stories from your unit you'd love to share? Did your girls do something amazing you'd like to see featured in the magazine? Get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you!
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