Welcome to the Autumn term! This term is going to be crammed with lots of exciting activities for you and your units. Take at look at what’s coming over the next few months.
Brownies Go Explore
3 of our wonderful Brownies Go Explore events have already passed. Girls from across the region have had adventures at Shuttleworth air museum, Colchester Zoo and Hautbois Activity Centre.
Just our London trip to go in September, bookings for which are now closed. We can’t wait to see all the fun our Brownies will be having whilst exploring London.
Plus, more and more of you are taking on the Brownies Go Explore challenge pack in your units and at home. Don’t forget to share your photos with us on our social media channels. We always love to see what you’ve been getting up to! Will you be planning the Go Explore challenge into your Autumn term activities?
The challenge pack contains lots of fun and exciting activities based on the different locations of the events and the themes: aviation, conservation, out and about, and landmarks and royals.
Social action challenge
We’ve loved seeing all the feedback from the social action challenge on our social media channels! Have you started planning the challenge into your Autumn term?
If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the pack yet, click here. You’ll discover all kinds of fun activities to help you empower your girls to become change-makers in their community.
The challenge badges are now available for you to buy from our wonderful region retail shop.
Winter Quest
The Winter Quest is back for 2023, looking shiny and new! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to complete as many of our 24 mini activities this winter as possible. The activities in this pack can be done in a number of ways:
- In unit meetings across the autumn and spring term as a team
- At home as a traditional advent calendar with a challenge every day in December
- At home with family during the winter break away from your Girlguiding family
Our activity suggestions are intended to inspire you. Feel free to adapt them to fit with your unit and that day’s theme. Many of the activities included could also link to the Girlguiding programme.
To complete this badge, you need to complete as many of the 24 activities as possible. There are spots to tick off the activities you’ve completed, to help you keep track of what you’ve done. There are some bigger activities that could fill a whole meeting, and some 5 minute ones that can act as fillers.
The quest pack is ready to go, and our fabulous new badge will be launching soon!
Coming soon
Spot-tacular Children in Need
This year, get ready to make Children in Need absolutely spot-tacular! We’ll be sharing resources to help you fundraise in your units and your local community. We’re also going to be having some exciting events going on. Keep an eye out as we announce more.
UK Parliament week
UK Parliament week is 6 – 12 November 2023. This year we’ll share some great resources you can use to help your girls talk about topics that really matter to them. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels as we share more.
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The Uniformed Youth Fund is a £15.52 million government programme. It aims to support non-military Uniformed Youth Organisations to tackle their existing teenager waiting lists in England. Girlguiding have secured nearly £2 million of this Fund to help increase our capacity for Guides and Rangers. Read on to hear how we’ll be using our allocation of this funding to support units in your region between now and 31 March 2025.
The funding will allow Girlguiding to develop learning materials for young leaders. They’ve recently released new guidance for leaders working with young volunteers. There’ll be new webinars for leaders such as a session on managing waiting lists.
In Anglia, we’ll open and support at least 14 new Guide or Ranger units. We’ll also recruit and welcome 59 new volunteers and create 270 new spaces in existing Guide or Ranger units. At least 25% of the work that we do will be in areas of deprivation.
What have we done so far?
We’ve supported 3 new Guide or Ranger units in Cambridgeshire East, Hertfordshire and Suffolk via our new unit grant. We’ll be working with these units in Autumn 2023 to see if there is any further help that will support their sustainability, as well as working with their district or division teams to support with any additional volunteer recruitment. A big part of the aims of the Uniformed Youth Fund is making sure that we scale up our offer sustainably. This means not just asking existing volunteers to take on new roles but making sure that their responsibilities are manageable and enjoyable. It is important in an area with a new unit that we make sure all sections are supported to give every unit, new and existing, the best chance of success.
What are you most excited about?
I know Guide and Ranger units aren’t normally where the biggest waiting lists exist but these young members are potentially the leaders of the future. They are the sections where girls learn life skills that support them well into adulthood. It provides them both mental and physical health benefits at a time when there is so much change in their lives. Research by the University of Edinburgh shows that being part of Girlguiding, or the Scouts, has health benefits into adulthood.
This project will allow us to push our boundaries and try new things that we wouldn’t otherwise consider. During our conversations with county members, thoughts such as holiday guiding and young leader training came up. I know that these initiatives will support the whole guiding family.
How can we help or get involved?
There will be a variety of ways that you can get involved as the project progresses. Commissioners, or people with a responsibility for growth in their area, might like to attend a 4 steps to recruitment success training session. These are particularly powerful if you can get a group attending from one division so invite your Girlguiding friends to attend with you.
If you are the main contact for 1 unit or more, use the Pass it on campaign recruitment packs you should have received in the post to recruit volunteers and generate excitement in your area. Tell other units where you have put up posters so they are encouraged to join in. They can help to find other places to advertise and reach out to the local community.
We’ve loved seeing volunteers completing our Promote and Grow challenge – if you do 5 activities you can claim a badge! Also, you might have seen our transition resources and plan on using those this term. What else can you do?
- Share your stories on social media and remember to tag us because we love to see what is happening.
- Know whether your area needs more volunteers, more girls or a bit of both.
- If you have a growth action plan, know what the next step is in your area. Is it a new Ranger unit, or do you want to strengthen existing units?
The most important thing you can do is to talk positively about your volunteering experience. Welcome new volunteers and break down any barriers to joining – like avoiding using jargon that doesn’t make sense. Tell volunteers they are cherished, that their contributions are appreciated. They should be reminded of the positive impact they have on girls, young women and the local community. If there is a new or establishing unit in your area, consider being a buddy to them. Offer to show them your term plan, risk assessments and communication to parents. You could also share any resources that are expensive to buy and only get used a couple of times a year.
Each month we’ll share an update, so do keep coming back to hear what is happening.
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Hi there! My name’s Katie and I’m the new apprentice for Girlguiding Anglia.
I joined as a marketing and communications apprentice in April 2023, and I can’t believe that I have already been working here for over 3 months. It has been a great experience so far and I love the fact that I am getting a Level 3 qualification at the same time as gaining experience working within marketing. The team at Girlguiding Anglia are amazing and I love working with them all.
So, why did I choose an apprenticeship?
I chose to apply for an apprenticeship because I wanted to gain additional qualifications whilst also working at the same time. I was home educated during covid, and my GCSE exams were cancelled two years in a row meaning that I had to wait until 2021 to sit my exams as I didn’t get predicted grades. This meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to do A Levels or any further education at the time. Whilst being at home, I was also training for my favourite thing, climbing! In 2022, I was selected for the GB Junior climbing team, and I travelled to lots of competitions around the world competing for Great Britain. My highlight was making the semi-finals of the Youth World Climbing Championships. It was an incredible experience and one I’ll never forget!
This year, I decided that I wanted to gain additional qualifications so I thought that an apprenticeship would be a great option for me as there are so many incredible benefits.
I’m finding my apprenticeship great because I’m gaining valuable experience and getting lots of guidance and support from my manager, Letty, whilst achieving an A Level equivalent qualification. I’m getting to do a variety of tasks meaning every day is unique and filled with different opportunities. It’s amazing that I can achieve this apprenticeship by working 30 hours per week and working at home one day a week. Another benefit is that I have a tutor who comes into the office to help me with the learning side of the course.
I’m looking forward to completing my apprenticeship in July or August 2024 and seeing what opportunities arise for the next steps in my marketing career.
I also got the opportunity to speak to Sophie over at the Girlguiding Anglia region shop to see how she was getting on with her retail assistant apprenticeship. This is what she had to say:
‘My journey with Girlguiding Anglia started in the summer of 2021 when I joined the retail team through the government’s Kickstart scheme, set up to help young people find work post-pandemic (although I could argue it started as a Rainbow!).
It was an enjoyable placement and the team made me feel welcome so when the opportunity of an apprenticeship came up, I was keen. I quickly became used to the environment but learning new skills and aspects of the role more in-depth has certainly kept me busy. A lot more goes into being a retail assistant and running a Girlguiding unit than I realised!
Through this apprenticeship I’ve felt supported by my mentor/manager and tutor to learn at my own pace in a way that works best for me. I’ve gained valuable experience but have also had time to grow in my abilities and confidence. It’s nice to have a routine again.
Now that I’m nearing the end, I’m looking forward to what’s next. The qualification I’m hoping to earn will help me in future. I hope to be here long-term, continuing to improve and getting to know our customers, volunteers and members.’
Thank you, Sophie! Good luck with finishing your apprenticeship!
If you are thinking about what to do next in your education, I’d recommend going for an apprenticeship! They are a great way to learn, get more knowledge and experience, and earn money all in one role. I’d love to hear about your apprenticeship journeys too.
Do we ever wonder what it might be like to be in WAGGGS in another country? When we think ‘outside the box’ does this help us be more sympathetic to our fellow guiders? Travelling abroad for our summer break or even just to another part of the country helps us learn ‘outside the box’; seeing new places, meeting different cultures and being in a new context are all ways to expand our horizons. We can even put our problems into perspective by seeing the bigger picture. This website has some interesting musings on ‘the bigger picture’: https://lenasamford.com/how-to-see-the-bigger-picture/ and here you can check out the WAGGGS website: https://www.wagggs.org/en/