Dear Girlguiding
Answering your questions about sleepovers
Illustrations by Hikimi/agencyrush.com
Dear Girlguiding is our question and answer feature only seen in the magazine. You asked... ‘how can we make sleepovers feel fun, new and exciting?’
We know sleepovers are a core experience in Girlguiding.
We’ve been around for over 100 years and still today, sleepovers and pack holidays are still some of your most cherished guiding memories. So much so that we created a special sleepover badge to remember them forever!
We asked some volunteers what exciting sleepovers they’ve planned and their tips, including ideas for how to theme your evenings or plan something in a unique location.
Ready to be inspired for the next overnight adventure with your unit?
Bring it to life with a theme
Choosing a theme can make your planning much simpler. Here’s some examples:
A magical movie night
Popcorn, teddy bears and a movie night. Who can beat it? Put a twist on the classic Girlguiding sleepover by planning it around the theme of your movie. To pick one, you could group the girls together, get them to present their favourite and ask everyone to cast a vote!
Be sure to check our guidance on what movies can be shown and if they’re covered by our license.
Think about how you could theme your snacks, decorations or activities throughout the evening to match the theme of your movie.
Thanks to our partners at ODEON, we’re holding exclusive screenings of Inside Out 2 for girls on 22 and 23 June. If your unit is coming along, now is the perfect chance to host an Inside Out themed sleepover before you go.
You could do things like:
- Watch the first Inside Out and play movie bingo! It could include things like when Riley makes a new core memory, or when a new character is introduced.
- Complete our ‘Happy thoughts’ activity for Brownies and Guides which encourages girls to reflect on positive memories.
- Split girls into groups and ask them to think of colourful snacks that related to each movie character: Joy (yellow), Sadness (blue), Anger (red) and Disgust (green). Remember to follow our guidance around food safety and people with dietary requirements.
A sleepover fit for kings and queens
To celebrate the King’s Coronation, girls from all sections in Girlguiding Somerset came together at Bishop’s Palace for a night of crafts, games and trails around the grounds.
Girlguiding Somerset has a ‘green policy’ which was proposed to them by a Ranger unit when they completed the Take Action skills builder. It’s led them to introduce a county pre-loved uniform shop and a ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ day. Given King Charles is also involved with environmental work, they decided it was the perfect theme for their sleepover!
Some of the activities came straight from the programme, for example Tote-ally-tee in Rangers UMA pack 4 and Sow it, grow it in Rangers pack 1.
‘We developed activities that were suitable for all ages. The Guides enjoyed doing the nature trails or playing the giant trivial pursuit as much as the Rainbows! The eco-glitter tattoos were a firm favourite with the Guides and Rangers. We hired a burger van to provide dinner and we had a mass sing-along on the Palace lawns which was a magical backdrop to watch the sunset’
- Bev, county commissioner for Somerset
What would be your advice to other volunteers planning sleepovers?
‘Get an enthusiastic team together and anything can happen! It may only be a small group but a wonderful event can still be delivered.
Having a theme or significant date to base it on helps to provide the focus. The venue certainly helped to create that feeling of doing something unique and special.
It’s also really important to create time in the schedule for the girls to spend time with each other, chatting and making new friends. The girls loved the sleepover, and the experience of being part of a bigger guiding family doing things together. ‘
Host it in a unique place
It could be a historic location, a local space run by the council, like a library or an adventurous outdoor space! Check out where other units have hosted their sleepovers.
Camping in a Cold War bunker
A Guide unit in Dundee planned a historic overnight adventure to a former Cold War bunker for World Thinking Day weekend. Located to the east of Dundee, the 2-tier sunken underground bunker was the headquarters of the Royal Observers Corp 28 Group.
Given that the venue was used as a communication hub during the war, the unit leaders included communication-themed programme activities for girls to complete. They did Binary beads and Alpha, Bravo, Charlie which you can now download for free on our online shop.
‘The girls thought this was an amazing opportunity to sleep in history, they particularly liked sleeping on original bunkbeds! It was really eerie hearing the noises of the building all night. So many girls wanted to do it all over again!’ - Moira, Guide unit leader in Dundee.
Lots of historical locations and museums are interested in involving youth groups, so try reaching out to your local history centre to see what they can do. You could do a ‘night at the museum’ theme! Even places like HMS Belfast run a ‘Kip in a Ship’ experience where children aged 7-16 can have a sleepover on the water.
Helpful hint
Can you tie in your sleepover with a certain national day? Check out our key calendar dates for the rest of 2024 to see if you can theme your sleepover around something special.
A night at the races
Girlguiding Epsom Division had a night at the races... literally! Over 300 Rainbows, Brownies, Guides. Rangers and their leaders gathered for a sleepover at Epsom racecourse for 1 night during World Thinking Day weekend. Here’s what their schedule looked like:
Day 1
- Leaders arrived first for a safety briefing. Rainbows and Guides arrived next, then Brownies later to stagger the arrivals.
- Girls kicked off the activities by playing Buddy bingo to get to know others who weren’t in their unit.
- There was an opening ceremony with a run-down of the weekend including a disco, prizes, songs and conga lines!
- Rangers ran an indoor campfire.
- Brownies had ‘yoganory’ - yoga with a story - to relax them before bed. This was adapted for older girls in a separate room.
‘We had held a previous World Thinking Day sleepover event for all sections, and we asked for feedback from the girls after that. They suggested yoga and a disco, so we included them in this event.’ - Mary, Epsom division commissioner and Brownie unit leader.
Day 2
- Everyone watched the sunrise and the racehorses training.
- With a collection of pennies and coins brought by girls, everyone made an enormous snake round the entire room! The money for this was then donated to WAGGGS.
- Everyone renewed their Promise at the closing ceremony before heading home.
To make it inclusive for all girls, leaders also provided a quiet room with colouring and crafts for anyone who needed a break from the noise. For girls with health conditions or food allergies, the leaders wrote adjustment plans, introduced a no nuts policy and the venue was able to provide separate food storage to keep girls safe.
Read our food safety guidance when going away on residentials.
Did partnering with another event location support the planning and organisation of your event?
‘Yes, hugely! We have a lot of experience of residentials and the team at Epsom racecourse have a lot of experience of the venue. We each asked the other questions, so it was really easy to set up. We were coming at it from different angles so covered everything between us.’ - Mary, Epsom division commissioner and Brownie unit leader.
Top tip
Let girls take the lead! If you want to hold a sleepover, why not let the girls take the lead and support your planning? You could spend some time in your unit meeting to brainstorm ideas or ask them to come up with their dream sleepover schedule!
You could kick things off by having girls come up with themes and voting on them altogether. Or girls might even want to try their hand at planning or running some of the activities.
Bouncing for badges at a trampoline park
Over 80 Guides from Surrey were jumping for joy as they spent the night in a trampoline park. Leaders in Surrey East County sent out a poll asking girls what kind of residential they would enjoy - and that’s where the idea was born.
The girls arrived and got set up in their rooms. After members of the public had left the venue, they had 2 hours of bouncing on trampolines! Then they had dinner and got up early for another hour of trampolining in the morning. The venue provided food, refreshments and party rooms for the girls and leaders to sleepover.
'The venue had done this before so they had a programme of how the event would flow so we were able to follow that. It was very helpful to have a partner to help handle some of the logistics, so we could focus on giving girls a good time and fulfilling the Girlguiding requirements. They sorted out all the food too, we just had to provide dietary requirements.’
Rachel, Brownie and Guide unit leader in Surrey
The girls were even awarded their own LaSER bounce badge! You can also earn our Height adventure badge for trampolining.
If you can’t find a trampoline park near you, you could look at hiring your own inflatables and hosting your own night at your unit meeting place.
‘Dear Girlguiding...there are lots of practical things to think about when I’m planning a sleepover. How can I make it easier?’
We know fun can’t happen without lots of hard work from you as a volunteer. Here are some resources that might help.
1. Read guidance for going on residentials
Our Going Away With scheme means you can plan trips for girls safely. If you want to do a sleepover, you need to hold or be working towards modules 1-4.
There’s guidance on our website for how to plan and run your own residentials event, how to fill in your residential event notification (REN) form and practical things you need to consider.
2. Run girl-led residentials
Girl-led residentials will support your planning and give girls the chance to try something new. Guides and Rangers can hold their own camp or residential if they’re working towards their Guide camp permit or lead away permit. Could they run your next overnight adventure?
3. Involve family members in adventures
Events like these showcase the magic of volunteering with Girlguiding! Ask parents or carers if they want to take part in a one-off volunteering opportunity and help plan your event. They could help you prepare, do some shopping or be an extra pair of hands during the day. They might even have links to venues or locations you could use.
Remember, all family members or new volunteers aged 18 or over who are staying overnight at a residential event must’ve completed the recruitment and vetting process and be assigned the right role in GO.
Here’s more about how to involve families in adventures and residentials.
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