Skills Builders
There are 12 skills builder topics. They all link with our programme themes and cover everything girls love about guiding from outdoor adventures to learning leadership skills.
There are six stages to complete in each topic and girls earn a badge for every stage they complete. Each stage is a bit more challenging than the one before – so if a girl starts stage 1 in Rainbows, by the time she reaches stage 5 as a Guide she’ll have gained some very valuable skills, got a great set of badges and had a lot of fun!
For example, as they progress through the stages of the Innovate skills builder, girls learn about design, construction, experimenting and a whole range of skills. It introduces them to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in a fun and relatable way.
Unit Meeting Activities
For small groups or whole units, our programme includes a suite of fun, ready-to-go unit meeting activities of varying lengths and styles, which can be used in a mix-and-match form based on the time you have.
They’re designed to be pick-up-and-go resources on an array of exciting topics your girls want to explore. They’re designed to encourage all girls to get involved and participate in the activity. You may want to use a 10-minute activity at the end of your unit meeting or do a longer activity to introduce girls to a topic that you are going to explore as a unit. And they all fit under our six programme themes.
Interest badges
Girls complete interest badges outside of the unit
At home, on holiday, anywhere they like. This means they can choose whichever interest badges they like without having to go with the group consensus. It gives them the space to develop their independence and self-confidence while having fun and trying something new.
Girls choose when they do them
Many can be done in a few hours or over a weekend. They’re as time-intensive as a girl chooses to make them. They don’t have to be done all at once. Instead girls can plan them around their other commitments.
Girls decide how they complete challenges
Each interest badge consists of three challenges, but we don’t tell girls exactly what to do. Instead they choose how they tackle each challenge and each girl will do something unique. There’s no ‘right’ way to do it and this encourages girls to be creative and challenge themselves.
Girls share what they’ve done with their leader
When they have done the challenges girls will share what they’ve achieved with their leader. And once she agrees that the badge is complete she will sign her badge book and present her with the badge.
Theme awards
These awards relate to the six new themes that run across the programme. There’s an award for each theme in every section. So a girl who starts in Rainbows and goes right through to Rangers could end up with 24 Theme awards.
A girl has to complete the following combination of activities within the same theme to achieve the Theme award for that section:
- One interest badge
- One skills builder stage
- A certain number of hours of unit meeting activities:
- 3 hours for Rainbows, 4 hours for Brownies and 5 hours for Guides and Rangers
Section Gold awards
Section Gold awards build on Theme awards. When a girl has achieved all six Theme awards in her section, she can decide to take on the relevant Gold award challenge to achieve the Gold award for her section. The challenge changes depending on a girl’s section and her interests.
It’s a great achievement and a big commitment. So, it’s up to each girl whether she chooses to complete a section Gold award.