Programme Support

Girlguiding launched the current programme in July 208 and in order to help out Leaders in our County we've created this page of useful links to help you find things on the main National website. If you spot any we've missed then do let us know, sending us a link to the national web page, and we'll add it in. If any of the links are broken, please also let us know.

Important error in Brownie Badge Books

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For the Brownie Leaders amongst you, please be aware that there is a significant error on page 61 of the new Brownie Badge Book relating to the First Aid Stage 2 Skills Builder.

Please amend all badge books in your possession (and check new stock purchased in the future) to remove the word 'not' immediately before 'breathing' in the Lie Back and Recover section of the page.
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This is an error for the badge book for Brownies only. Rainbows and Skills Builders packs are unaffected. HQ are aware and future print runs will be amended accordingly.

eLearning

Programme overview - An introduction to the programme and all its elements including: themes, unit meeting activities, skills builders, interest badges, theme awards, section gold awards and anniversary badges.
Unit meeting activities and skills builders - Find out more about these elements of the programme and how you might use them in your unit.
Interest and anniversary badges - Learn all about our interest badges and anniversary badges, how you can support girls with them and when to award them.
Awards - Delve into the details of theme awards, section gold awards, the Queen’s Guide award and the Commonwealth award. Find out how girls can achieve them and how you can support girls with them.
Unit programme planning - Explore how to create a balanced and varied, girl-led unit programme. Make sure it meets the Five Essentials and help all girls within your unit to fulfil their potential.

Webinars

A webinar is an online training where you can learn about the programme in real time with a Girlguiding Trainer and ask questions, all from the comfort of your own home. You could even do it in your pyjamas if you wanted! There are limited dates and spaces so log into GO in order to book. We've linked the help document below to help you get signed up.
You need to be logged into GO for this link to work.

Guidance Notes for All Leaders

This is the new version of the Guidance Notes for Leaders and replaces the old sectional versions.

Recording (on paper and on GO)

Recording ultimately needs to be done on GO but we know this is not practical for all units to be able to facilitate during the meeting itself. It may therefore be necessary to hold a paper record to update on a weekly basis at your meetings and then to update the information to GO perhaps once a month or each half term. These resources might help you with this. For help on using the new area in GO to record your girls' progress, please consult the official help documents. You need to be logged into GO to access these.
UNOFFICIAL Individual Brownie New Programme Record - This resource has been borrowed from one of the Facebook groups and was put together by another Leader to use in her unit. Reproduced with permission from Bethanie Bell, as discovered on the 'Girlguiding Brownie Leader Support Group (United Kingdom)' Group on Facebook. 

Guiding Conversation - Getting ready for the New Programme

Guiding Conversations is a series of tools to facilitate discussions at District or Division meetings. Each conversation focuses on a specific topic relevant to guiding, whether it's managing challenging behaviour or offering a varied programme to girls. As a Commissioner, you can lead the conversation or support your Leaders to do so. Your aim should be to develop practical solutions to issues in your area, so you can ensure all girls get the same, great guiding experience.

Resources to introduce the new programme to your girls

Programme Posters - Girlguiding have created posters for each section. There are three posters as follows
- An overview of all the badges in that section divided by theme
- An overview of each of the programme themes
- An overview of what girls need to do to achieve a Theme Award and their Gold Award
Theme Dice Template - Like the version that came with your Guiding Magazine at the end of July, you can use this template to create a bigger version of the dice.
Colour your Own Poster - This is a colour your own version of the poster that came with your Guiding magazaine at the end of July.
#EveryGirl Poster - This is the actual, colour version of the poster that came with the Guiding magazine at the end of July.
Get Active - To help you explain the different programme elements to your unit, we’ve developed two new activities that allow girls to get to grips with everything in a fun, informative way.
You’ll find these activities in the latest edition of Guiding magazine, but you can also download them here.
One is for Rainbows and Brownies and the other is for Guides and Rangers. You’ll notice that they’re speaking directly to girls. This is to encourage them to take more of a lead in their unit meetings and what they do in guiding as a whole. All the new programme activities were created with this in mind.
Skills Builder Activity - Technically a training resource but for some of our sections this handy printable activity will be a good one. It's designed as a puzzle for get participants to put together the themes with the skills topics. Print, cut and hey presto!
UMA & Skills Builder Handout - Again, a training handout but this handy sheet gives you some excellent ideas on how to get your girls to help with the decision making in choosing the UMAs and Skills Builders.
Interest Badge Handout - This handy printable gives girls loads of ideas of ways they could present their badge work to the Leader and the rest of their six or unit.
Awards Handout - This resource has a page for each section and is a great visual to show the girls what they need to gain the new programme awards. It also has the logos of the Commonwealth and Queen's Guide Awards in the relevant section pages.
UNOFFICIAL Presentation for Parents - This resource has been borrowed from one of the Facebook groups and was put together by another Leader to use with parents of girls in her unit. Reproduced with permission from Kathryn Hall, as discovered on the 'GirlGuiding Rainbow Leader Support Group (United Kingdom)' Group on Facebook. You will need to tweak it for your own use.

Explaining the new programme to parents

To help explain our new programme to parents, Girlguiding have created handy section-specific information sheets.
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Transitions from old programme to new

Facts:
  • The current programme will be retired from use at the end of the 2018/2019 academic year so all units must have the new programme up and running by September 2019. 
  • If you have a girl who has almost completed a badge or award on the old programme, she is able to continue working on this to completion, provided it is completed before the end of August 2019.
  • The County will continue to run BP Adventure weekends whilst we have the demand for it. Please contact our BP Coordinator for more information.

These guidance notes for Leaders will help you get your unit started on the new programme and know what to expect in our changeover year 2018-2019.

Planning your Programme

Unit Programme Planning Checklist - Remember, the girls should choose the activities that form the programme. As leaders, we organise their choices by putting things together in a balanced and varied programme. This easy checklist will help you through the 7 steps to programme planning.​
Weekly Record Sheet - This is a template of a way you could choose to record your weekly programme, who has done what, etc. This could then be updated to GO perhaps once a month or half term. You could recruit a parent to do this element of the admin for you! 
Sample Termly Programme Planner - This template is one way you could choose to record your termly programme. It was suggested at a training last week that you might like to add a columns for resources to help you remember what you need to pack each week.

Other resources

Participation on a plate - This is a great resource full of ideas on how you can get girls involved in the decision making
Five Essentials - Don't forget the five essentials are still part of our planning.
Educational Framework - This helps girls to develop skills and competencies through their Guiding experience.

Using the new programme images, icons & resources

To make sure that the official programme resources, images, badges and communications can be easily identified, members can’t use these in their own materials.​Girlguiding have provided Leaders with some new clipart which can also be accessed from the links on these pages.

Guidance on activities

One part of the new programme that hasn't changed is ensuring our activities are run as safely as possible. None of this section is new but a timely reminder as we launch into all manner of new activities that risk assessments still play a vital part of our role as volunteers!

Don't forget to inform your local Commissioner if you are planning an activity away from your usual meeting place or outside of your usual meeting times and to seek permission from parents.

New downloadable UMA activities

Some examples of Girlguiding's UMA activity cards can be found on their website.
Girlguiding have released new UMAs for each section. These were in the Autumn 2018 Guiding Magazine
These can be found in the online version of the magazine here and start on page 62.