‘Lead into guiding’ Leader’s pack for The Senior Section Residential

Venue address:

Venue contact number:

Contact numbers forLeaders:

Nearest medical facilities:

Doctor / A&E Hospital / Hospital / Hospital
Programme overview
Programme aim / To introduce NCS graduates to Girlguiding’s programme for The Senior Section and give them a taste of what guiding has to offer.
Programme objectives / During the weekend the young people will:
  1. experience outdoor activities such as campfires, crate stacking challenge, and a low ropes course as well as activities related to each of the Senior Section Octants
  2. increase their confidence
  3. develop new friendships
  4. be encouraged to identify with Girlguiding, our values and relevant opportunities we offer
  5. learn about Girlguiding and how they can get involved with us in the future.

Friday
Time / Mins / Activity type / Activity description / Objectives / Facilitator notes
4pm / 60 / Young people arrive at venue /
  • Take register.
  • Call any no-shows to check that they are on their way.
/
  • Provide a warm welcome.
  • Ensure everyone gets to the venue safely.
/
  • Arrange taxi shuttle ahead of time if necessary.
  • Young people’s phone numbers.

5pm / 30 / Settle in, unpack, time for latecomers, overview of safety procedures /
  • People introduce themselves.
  • Go through the agenda for the weekend.
  • Fire procedure and exits for the accommodation.
  • Show people the facilities
  • Venue information and safety briefing:
  • do not leave the accommodation without letting a Leader know first
  • stay in pairs or groups when outside the accommodation
  • take a mobile phone and map with you
  • no one is to leave the accommodation after sunset.
/
  • Set framework for the weekend.
  • Mitigate risk.
/
  • Get maps of the venue.

5:30pm / 60 / Cook and eat dinner
(Independent living) /
  • Suggested dinner: tacos.
/
  • Encourage team work and independence.
  • Feed some hungry people!
/ Items needed:
  • taco kits x3, mince, veggie mince, lettuce, tomato, cheese.

6:30pm / 20 / Introduction, expectations for the weekend /
  • Talk about expectations and safety. You might like to discuss:
  • behaviour and what is expected of the participants
  • how participants would like to be treated
  • smoking and mobile phone use
  • agree on a course of action to address potential disagreements, bullying, etc.
/
  • Create a safe space.
  • Talk about personal values.
/ Items needed:
  • paper, pens, sticky tack.

6:50pm / 10 / Facilitation ‘feeling’ cards /
  • Everyone chooses a card which represents how they are feeling at that moment about the course.
  • Discussion.
/
  • Help participants express their feelings.
  • Encourage more in-depth feedback.
  • Set the expectation that the cards will be used at the beginning and end of each day.
/ Items needed:
  • Information about how to make the Facilitation cards can be found on page 12 of A guide to ‘Lead into guiding’.

7pm / 30 / Getting to know you games / Four squares (15 mins)
Everyone receives a piece of paper and has to divide it into four equal sections (either by folding or drawing lines). In each quarter participants draw or write the answer to the following questions:
  • What are your favourite hobbies?
  • What is one goal that you’d like to accomplish during your lifetime?
  • What three words would you use to describe yourself?
  • What is one item that you really should throw away but probably never will?
/
  • Encourage creativity.
  • Get participants to introduce themselves and talk about their interests.
  • Find common interests and goals between the participants.
/ Independent activity.
Items needed:
  • Piece of paper for each participant, pens
  • 2 minutes per quarter page, 7 minutes for feedback.

Connecting stories (15 mins)
The aim is to make the longest connecting story.
  • One person tells a short story about something that they enjoy/something that’s happened to them.
  • They write it on a sticky note.
  • Another person thinks of a connecting story and writes that on a sticky note.
Example: 1) ‘I got on the wrong train and ended up in Brighton.’
2) ‘I went on holiday to Brighton once and I ate so much candy floss that I turned pink.’
3) ‘I dyed my hair pink by accident’, etc. /
  • Get the group chatting to each other.
  • Share some silly stories and personality traits.
  • Put people at ease.
/ This activity is a good way to discover similar experiences, hobbies, and silly stories. The group can be split in two.
Items needed:
  • Sticky notes, pens.

7:30pm / - / Free time / A chance for young people to have some free time to so what they want: relax, do homework, hang out together. / Suggested items:
  • Film, projector, laptop, boardgames, deck of cards, disposable cameras, senior section resources, revision materials (lined paper, pens, etc).

Saturday
Time / Mins / Activity type / Activity description and objectives / Objectives / Facilitator notes
9am / 50 / Breakfast /
  • Toast and cereals.
  • Microwave porridge.
/
  • Encourage team work and independence.
  • Feed some hungry people!
/ Items needed:
  • white and brown bread, butter/margarine, jam, cereal, milk, microwaveable porridge, tea, coffee, juice.

9.50am / 10 / Facilitation ‘feeling’ cards /
  • Everyone chooses a card which represents how they are feeling at that moment about the course.
  • Discussion.
/
  • Help participants express their feelings.
  • Encourage more in-depth feedback.
  • Set the expectation that the cards will be used at the beginning and end of each day.
/ Items needed:
  • information about how to make the Facilitation cards can be found on page 12 of A guide to ‘Lead into guiding’.

10am / 60 / Scavenger hunt
(Out of Doors, Creativity) /
  • Split young people are into smaller groups.
  • Each group is given a map, a compass, a list of things to take a photo or video of using their phone.
  • Groups are given 40 minutes to explore the site and take photos of themselves with as many of the things on the list as possible.
  • They can upload photos to social media with the #leadintoguiding hashtag.
/
  • Get participants out and about.
  • Introduce young people to the outdoors aspect of guiding.
  • Build confidence and team work.
  • Push comfort zone a little bit out in the ‘wild’.
/ Items needed:
  • map of the site for each person
  • scavenger hunt list which can be downloaded from
    growingguiding.
  • a phone or camera for each group.

11am / 15 / Break
11:15am / 60 / Rafa Rafa game /
  • A game where young people create their own culture.
/
  • Something fun that can lead to a wider, deeper discussion.
/ Items needed:
  • search ‘Rafa Rafa’ on for instructions.

12:15pm / 15+ / Rafa Rafa game debrief /
  • Get the young people thinking and discussing their beliefs and ideas.
  • Start to draw links with GOLD & INTOPS.

1pm / 60 / Lunch /
  • Suggested lunch: sandwiches
/ Items needed:
  • white and brown bread, margarine/butter, cheese, chicken slices, tomatoes, lettuce, crisps, fruit.

2pm / 40 / Community presentation
(Personal Values, International, Community action, Creativity) /
  • Divide the group into pairs or smaller groups. They have to choose one of the following topics,
  • Embracing diversity.
  • Nature and green space.
  • Healthy living and well-being.
  • Transport links.
  • Volunteering and community collaboration.
  • In their teams, they create a 5 minute presentation and a poster about the communities that they live in, in relation to the topic that they chose.
  • They should think about:
  • how to describe their community to someone unfamiliar with it
  • similarities and differences between their respective communities
  • things that they would change and how they could change them.
/
  • Learn from each other and recognise past experiences.
  • Start to think about how volunteering (with Girlguiding!) could help their local communities.
/ Items needed:
  • large sheets of paper, pens, magazines to cut up, scissors, glue
  • information about volunteering in the local area.

2:40pm / 20 / Community presentation feedback
(Leadership, Community Action) /
  • Encourage conversation about the different topics and what people think.
  • Include volunteering opportunities when relevant.

3pm / 60 / Outdoor adventure, eg Low ropes
(Fit for life, Out of Doors) /
  • Action!
  • Adventure!
  • Wobbling!
/
  • Get a taste of adventure in guiding and start to identify this as part of the guiding journey.
/ Have a first aider and first aid kit on hand.
4pm / 30 / Explain Join Us, and explanations of how to get involved with guiding
(Leadership, Community Action) /
  • A chat about Girlguiding’s structure, volunteering and what happens when you go on Join Us.
/
  • Empower participants with the knowledge of how they can be involved as either a member of The Senior Section or a volunteer.
/ Items needed:
  • projector, laptop.

4:30pm / 30 / Food prep for campfire
(Independent living) /
  • Prepare salad and cooking equipment.
/
  • Encourage team work and independence.
  • Feed some hungry people!
/ Items needed:
  • salad ingredients, tin foil, utensils.

5pm / 120 / Campfire
(Out of Doors) /
  • Hot dogs, jacket potatoes, chocolate bananas, s’mores.
/
  • Get the young people to experience some of the outdoors fun of guiding.
/ Items needed:
  • sausages, veggie sausages, ketchup, mustard, rolls, potatoes, cheese, margarine, chocolate, bananas, tin foil, halal marshmallows, biscuits.

7pm / On going / Free time (Indoors) / A chance for young people to have some free time to so what they want: relax, do homework, hang out together. / Items needed:
  • film, projector, laptop
  • wall or sheet to project film on to.

Sunday
Time / Mins / Activity type / Activity description and objectives / Objectives / Facilitator notes
9am / 60 / Breakfast /
  • Toast and cereals.
  • Microwave porridge.
/
  • Encourage team work and independence.
  • Feed some hungry people!
/ Items needed:
  • white bread, brown bread, butter/margarine, jam, cereal, microwavable porridge, milk, tea, coffee, juice.

10am / 60 / Outdoor adventure, eg Crate stacking
(Out of Doors, Fit for Life) /
  • Lead by trained venue staff.
/
  • Have fun.
  • Challenge participants physically and mentally.
/ Needed:
  • first aider and first aid kit.

11am / 60 / Evaluation and reflection
(Personal values, Leadership) / Facilitation cards (15 minutes)
  • Each person chooses a facilitation card to represent how they felt about the programme as a whole.
  • Ask them to compare and contrast this card to the one that they picked at the beginning of the programme.
  • Discuss.
/
  • Help participants express their feelings.
  • Encourage more in-depth feedback.
/ Items needed:
  • facilitation cards.

Treasure/trash (15 minutes)
  • Young people write different activities on sticky notes, and affix them to one of two large posters.
  • One side of the poster is ‘treasure’ – things that they enjoyed, things that they learnt a lot from, things that they would recommend. The other side is ‘trash’ – things that they did not enjoy so much and would like to change.
/
  • Provide an individual, less accountable method of giving feedback.
  • Make it easier to see what participants did and didn’t like.
/ Get staff to order pizza or lunch treat
Items needed:
  • pens, sticky notes, large sheet of paper.

  • General wider chat
/
  • Chance for people to sign up to Join Us.
/ Items needed:
  • laptop.

12pm / 60 / Later letters / This activity gives participants the opportunity to receive a letter from themselves at a later date, which reminds them of their experience during the programme.
  • Give each participant a piece of paper, a pen/pencil and an envelope.
  • Ask each person to write a letter to themselves, describing their experience from this weekend: what they have learnt and a promise for the future.
  • Once they have finished writing, other group memberscan include greetings, mailing addresses, birthday wishes, email addresses, sketches or photographs in the envelope.
  • Get them to seal the letter and items inside the envelope, and write their address on the front.
  • Post the letters back to their authors one month later.
/
  • Remind participants of their experience and everything guiding offers.
  • Remind participants that they can still sign up to volunteer or become members of The Senior Section.
/ Items needed:
  • paper, pens, envelopes, decorative items.
  • Stamps.

1pm / 60 / Lunchtime treat /
  • Relaxed lunch to end the week
/ Items needed:
  • phone number for delivery/take-out restaurant of choice, and menu.

2pm / 60 / Tidy up and pack
3pm / - / Leaving