Dear Girlguiding

Answering your questions on how to make the programme work for your unit

Dear Girlguiding is our question and answer feature exclusive to the magazine. In this issue Mhairi, lead volunteer for girl experience, answers a few of your most frequently asked questions about our programme.

Our programme is at the heart of what we do at Girlguiding. But no two units are the same – so what works for one unit might not fit for you and your girls. We designed the programme to be as flexible as possible. But we know it can sometimes be tricky to think up ways to make things work.

Here are Mhairi’s ideas on how to adapt, change, tweak or enhance the programme.

Dear Girlguiding...

How much can I change the programme to fit my unit’s needs?

We know that every unit is different. In UMAs and skills builders, there are lots of activities to choose from that might suit your unit. Sometimes there might be an activity that would work with a few tweaks. As long as the overall aim is met for the activity, you can change and adapt it as much as you like.

This could mean taking the discussion points out if your girls have totally grasped the idea, or adding in extra elements to make a full evening out of your activity. You might need to adjust the timings of the activity if you’re doing this and work with your other volunteers to make sure everyone is on the same page.

It’s also a fantastic way to involve your girls and get them thinking about how they could change an activity to work better for their needs.

I don’t like the look of a particular activity – how can I make it more fun?

The programme was designed so that every leader, regardless of experience, could pick up an activity and run it – with all the information you need on one page. Sometimes though, we read an activity and think, ‘this could use something extra.’ If you and your girls agree, why not have a brainstorming session to think about how you could add to it? Chat to your leadership team and girls to see what pearls of wisdom come out. Can you have a themed evening with lots of different activities? Could you take the aim of the activity and change it into a game or something that your unit loves to do? Could you do this activity as a timed challenge? Some of my Rangers’ favourite evenings have been dressing up and doing activities like we’re in an operating room – could you do something similar?

It’s also helpful to remember how much choice there is the programme. If your unit just doesn’t like the look of a particular activity, even with suggestions of how to make it different, there are plenty of other options to choose from. You can use the activity finder to narrow down what you’re looking for, and search for activities that come under a particular theme.

There are lots of a certain themed type of activity, but my girls aren’t interested in that theme. How can we still do this UMA?

Sometimes our girls can surprise us. And we know that what girls love about Girlguiding is that it’s a space to learn, grow and challenge ourselves. Show the girls activities ahead of time and see what they like and don’t like (and if there are any adaptations they’d like to make). Perhaps someone would like to help lead it for a small group of girls who are interested in giving it a go? If you still find that your girls aren’t super keen on something, then challenge yourselves to see how many different ways you can still meet the aim of the activity.

My girls want to get their gold awards, but it’s not achievable in the time we have. How do I manage expectations around it?

The gold awards are the highest award in each section and are meant to be a challenge. We’ve recently reduced the UMA hours needed for a theme award to make this more achievable for girls. If you have a group of girls really interested, maybe they could form a ‘gold group’ to work on things together and support each other to achieve it. If you have a young leader in your unit, they could go through what’s required, how much they’ve already done (and celebrate this!), and together make a plan for how they can work towards it. Don’t forget to mark big achievements along the way too!

It’s also worth talking to girls openly about how much time it might take them to complete their interest badges outside of unit meetings. If girls are planning together, it might be helpful to go over the activities required for badges they’re interested in, and to brainstorm ideas for how they can complete the badge in a way that works for them.

There are lots of adventurous skills builders and UMAs, but not so many adventure-themed badges. Any ideas?

We’ve heard from leaders that they’d love more adventure badges, and for it to be easier to do adventurous activities with their units. We’ve been working on updating our risk assessment checklist for adventurous activities and have been consulting with girls and leaders on how we can make adventure more accessible. We’ve now launched our new adventure badges across 5 themes (sport, water, height, snow, and land). They’re not part of the programme - they’re personal adventure badges to support and inspire girls to take on adventures!

Thanks Mhairi for sharing your tips and tricks for making the programme work for different needs!

Have you got an interesting idea of your own you’d like to share? Or perhaps there’s something about the programme you just can’t crack, and you’d like to get a second opinion? Fill in this form with your questions and comments.

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Dear Girlguiding