Meg's Guiding Adventure's

For today's post I thought I would share with you all a little bit of a Guiding update, what I'm currently doing and what I'm working towards as at the moment I am getting up to lots of exciting stuff.  As you all know I am a Rainbow leader and am also currently working on my module one for Brownies where I also help out! I have just taken over as leader in charge at my Rainbow unit (with the continued support of the previous leader in charge) which I am really excited about! 6 of our current Rainbows are moving up to Brownies next week which although is sad I've gotten to offer places to 6 girls on the waiting list which is very exciting! We have a busy term coming up, celebrating the Royal wedding, taking part in Future Girl and we are also going to be working on a Roundabout after half term. This term is also very exciting for my Brownies too as the unit is celebrating their 90th Birthday! I got the job of organising the badge (you know I love badges!) a...

After an Easter break, filled with lots of chocolate and rest, the summer term will soon be here! I’m sure lots of you are currently planning the term ahead so I thought I would share with you some of my ideas for the next term! Girlguiding has released an all section inclusive badge called ‘ Future Girl ’ for units all across the UK to take part in! Future girl is simply a way for girls to get a say in Girlguiding’s future and has activity cards for each section for leaders to use to achieve the badge! I think Future Girl is a great idea as the only way for an organisation to be powerful and successful is for it to listen and act upon its members ideas and beliefs and doing this on such a large scale is great, especially during a time of such heavy change! If you want to get your unit involved with Future Girl you have to do it this term as the deadline for the questionnaire (and to get your badges), is the 15th of July! I’m hoping to do this with my Rainbow unit, and although ...

I’m sure most of you know that one of my roles within Guiding is that of a Peer Educator. I’ve been trained as a Peer Educator for two years now and during that time I’ve ran 19 sessions and am trained on all three resources. As part of a new series on my blog I am going to be sharing with you each topic and resource in a little bit more detail to help you understand each resources aims and messages and encourage you to get involved or invite some Peer Educators to your unit!  Breaking Free is the latest resource released by Peer Ed and is based on Gender Stereotypes. The resource requires one unit meeting and also for the leaders to run a stand alone activity the following week for the girls to earn their badges (Peer Educators will provide more guidance on this) but without the activity ran by the leader the following week, the girls won’t have earned their badges!  So a Breaking Free session is split into four sections with four different aims; The first activ...

Last September I started my four year Events Management course at the University of Chester. Before I even started I knew I wanted to continue guiding in some form and so far it is going great and I am loving my new unit! Today I thought I would share with you my guiding whilst at uni story so far and some advice for volunteering whilst studying!  The best way for finding a new unit to volunteer with in my experience is through the Facebook page called ‘Guiding Movers’ Leaders looking for volunteers post on it as well as people moving to new areas and you post which section and area you would like to volunteer in. Of course not every unit in every area is a part of this page but leaders from university areas usually are! Depending on where you are moving too you may be very in demand! I would definitely recommend to not say yes to the first person, see where and what your options are, which unit is closest to you etc and make sure your timetable allows before you fully commit!...

One of my roles in guiding is being a Peer Educator and I love it so much! I visit Brownie, Guide and Ranger units and talk to them and teach them topics like body confidence and mental resilience. I thought I would do a post explaining a bit about Peer Ed and what you need to do to become a Peer Educator and once you are trained! To become a Peer Educator you first of all need to attend a training which usually runs over a weekend, organised at either county or regional level. You can usually find out when these are running by contacting your county Peer Ed coordinator or checking your local guiding websites. Even if there isn't any up and coming, tell people you want one as if they know there is demand it will increase the likelihood of a training taking place. After your initial training you will be able to run sessions for units in one of the three resources, then after your first day you will be able to attend extra day trainings on the other two resources.  It...

Currently I am working towards my module one for Brownies, although Rainbows is my main section, I still work quite a bit with the Brownies through Shropshire Holiday Brownies, Peer Education and since starting University I stay most week after Rainbows to help with Brownies. So I thought it might be useful to complete my module one for the section as then I can be an official Brownie leader! I’m also using module one for Brownies towards my Queens Guide (Service in guiding, 20 hour project) so all in all it’s going to be a pretty useful qualification to have!  I’ve only been working on it since after Christmas, so I really haven’t achieved a lot, however last week I ran the session for my Brownie unit on the promise so I thought I would share with you all what I did for some inspiration!  I wanted to start the meeting by letting them let off some steam so I made a promise relay to act as a reminder of the promise and get them working together. For this activity I pri...

My home county Shropshire runs a programme called Holiday Brownies for girls throughout the county who are on waiting lists for Brownie units. They learn and make their promise, earn badges and have lots of fun just like any other Brownies and they get to do it in a beautiful national trust building!  The programme runs normally in easter and summer and I first got involved this summer. I think it is a brilliant idea as not only do the girls have so much fun but it gets more girls involved in guiding! This year we decided to add a extra day at Christmas to have a catch up with the girls and help bridge the gap between easter and summer. I picked the Toymaker badge as I thought it would allow us to do some festive activities with the girls and alongside the badge we added in a visit to the the mansion and a walk to see the deers being fed and some christmas card making.  Although we only had a day with the girls we fitted lots in and they all really enjoyed it! The fir...