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Hi, I’m Sarah the Queen’s Guide and Duke of Edinburgh’s award co-ordinator for Girlguiding Leeds.  I’ve been a member of Girlguiding since I was a Brownie and been a Guide, Ranger, Young Leader and Guide leader, and I’m now a Ranger leader as well as an IT consultant.  

I did my Queen’s Guide and DofE awards through Girlguiding, and both are fantastic opportunities. My biggest lesson learnt is that if you’re going to do both, do them together! 

The Queen’s Guide award is the highest award you can work towards in Girlguiding. Although it is challenging, it’s achievable by anyone prepared to put in the effort. Through doing the award you will have the chance to develop your existing skills, learn new ones and have fun while contributing to both guiding and your wider community. Your achievement will be celebrated by Girlguiding locally and nationally and will look great on your CV. It’s open to Girlguiding members aged 16 to 25 and you have up to three years to complete it – but don’t worry, you can take a break if you need to. 

Poppy Bell, who finished her Queen’s Guide award in late 2020 said:

‘Recently completing my Queen’s Guide award marked the end of a crazy three years filled with learning how to play rugby, accessibility surveys, a trip to London, completing my Going Away With license and many a unit meeting all while making friends across Girlguiding. My advice for anyone wanting to start the award is, definitely do- you’ll love it!’ 

The Duke of Edinburgh’s award doesn’t have to be done with Girlguiding but we are a licensed organisation so you can register through us. It is an internationally recognised programme available to 14 to 24 year-olds. Like the Queen’s Guide award, it is an opportunity to discover new interests and talents, gain essential life skills and have fun.  

There are three levels available: 

• Bronze – for 14 to 24 year-olds (or 13 and in the school year when you turn 14, so you don’t have to wait until your friends are 14). This level takes at least six months  
• Silver – for 15 to 24 year-olds (or 14 and in the school year when you turn 15). The Silver award takes at least six months if you’ve completed Bronze, or twelve months as a direct entrant to Silver 
• Gold – for 16 to 24 year-olds. This level takes at least twelve months if you’ve completed Silver, or at least eighteen months as a direct entrant to Gold 

If you’re working towards both your Queen’s Guide and Gold DofE awards, some activities can be counted towards both – just make sure you meet all the requirements. 

The most common question asked is ‘what about the expedition?’ Don’t let it put you off. It may be challenging (that’s the point of an impressive looking award), but it’s no longer just about walking a certain number of miles; it’s your award so you can make it your own. 

Even with lockdown restrictions, both awards are still running. If you’re interested and want to find out more or are ready to get started, please get in touch.  

Sarah

queensguide@girlguidingleeds.org.uk   

Parkwood Division covers the Oakwood, Gipton, Osmondthorpe, Harehills and Roundhay areas of Leeds. There are 33 Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Ranger groups, led by a team of fantastic volunteers. 

In early December, Parkwood division held a virtual panto-themed sleepover, with over 110 young members signing up for different activities throughout the weekend. Activities included snowflake making, storytelling, a laughing yoga session, watching the Girlguiding Sisterhood in the Wood pantomime, a Zoom-campfire, bingo, a quiz and plenty of Christmassy games. Teaching over 70 people to make pizzas from scratch over Zoom was certainly an experience for the leaders – but was loved by the girls. 

Aside from the division-wide event, we’ve been really proud that most of our groups have managed to keep in contact with their girls through post, email, some face-to-face outdoor sessions when we were able to and lots of virtual meetings. 

Guides from Parkwood division joined others from around the North East England region at the virtual International Community Experience (ICE) weekend, where they planned community action projects, had a virtual peer education session and took part in a cooking challenge.  As well as welcoming new girls into our units, a special welcome goes to Kate (6^th Roundhay Rainbows) and Tally (6^th Roundhay Guides) who have moved to the area as leaders. A special thank you also goes to Emily and Lesley who have taken over 7^th Roundhay Rainbows and got the group going again with a term of fun and exciting Zoom sessions. 

At Girlguiding Leeds we have a Wellbeing Team who have volunteered to support our leaders and other volunteers on mental health matters. They will be gathering together resources and sharing tips & ideas to help all our members.

From 1 -7 February this year, it is Children’s Mental Health Week, so here the team share some homeschooling tips for parents:

Tips for parents homeschooling children and supporting wellbeing

Homeschooling can be difficult for parents and children. To make things easier and more enjoyable for everyone, it’s best to establish a positive environment at home.

1. Distinguish between weekdays and weekends, to separate school life and home life.

2. Designate a working space if possible.

3. Create and stick to a routine with start and finish times. Children could eat breakfast at the same time each morning and get dressed before starting the school-day.

4. Make time for exercise, breaks and lunch throughout the day.

5. Stick a timetable up on the wall so everyone knows what they should be doing when, and tick tasks off when completed.  Remember, expectations need to be realistic given the circumstances. Include outside activities and device downtimes to keep everyone active!

6. Celebrate success! Encourage children to share their learning with family members, school friends and teachers via e-mail or their school learning platform. Give positive feedback as much as possible!

7. Keep in email contact with the class teacher as you and your children may need help with accessing or completing tasks. Teachers will help as much as they can by adapting them or providing support.

8. And finally, congratulate yourself on a job well done!  Be kind to yourself – you are not an experienced teacher nor does your child’s school expect you to be! You are doing your very best in an extremely challenging situation and supporting your child’s wellbeing now is the priority.

Remember, it’s important for you to not overstretch yourself and take care of your own mental wellbeing. 

Abbeywood Division includes Meanwood, Headingley, Kirkstall and Armley. We are a fun division with 27 units including Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers. Our groups are led by a team of enthusiastic leaders who usually enjoy taking their girls on adventures.

Like everyone else, we’ve been unable run sleepovers and camps because of covid – but we’ve still found ways to keep our units running and welcome new young members into our groups.

Some groups met outdoors face-to-face (whilst we were allowed) in local parks and did various activities including learning to use a compass, having a picnic, going seed collecting with a park ranger, making kites, and playing hide and seek in the woods. There was even a ‘camp day’ at the local Scout campsite, where girls lit fires with flint and steel, toasted marshmallows, built dens and played a wide game.

Other units have been meeting on Zoom, with activities including baking, craft, percussion workshops and games nights. One group even made fruit crumbles over video call (which was as interesting as it was fun!), whilst another had an evening of animal encounters – meeting a snake, parrot, tortoise and tenrec!

Some groups have been providing activity packs for their girls, with challenges ranging from finding out about strokes to creating pictures from natural objects.

Volunteers in the division have been busy too, attending virtual first response refreshers and Safe Space trainings to ensure they can continue to provide safe meetings for their members.

We are sure it won’t surprise anyone to know that Templefields gets part of it’s name from one of our well known historic sites – Temple Newsam. The grounds and parkland are regularly used by the many units that are just a short walk away. This has been more of a challenge during 2020, but we are Girlguiding, so we will find a way! Some units are meeting virtually and encouraging girls to have ‘Adventures at Home’.

The ‘fields’ part of Templefields also has a historic element to it too. Although many have now been built upon, there have always been fields to the north of our division that surround the villages of Scholes, Barwick-in-Elmet and Aberford. Like lots of fields in our area, one of these was the site of a famous battle in Anglo Saxon times. Of course, we are more likely to use fields for camping these days, but sadly our Brownie and Guide holidays had to be cancelled or postponed.

To make up for missing out, some of our units held virtual camps instead. Some girls were brave enough to camp in their back gardens, whilst some made sleeping pods to camp indoors. There was lots of cooking, baking, eating, making and even some virtual campfires.

Colton Rainbows, Brownies and Guides usually meet at Temple Newsam at the end of the summer term for a picnic. They decided that if they couldn’t get to Temple Newsam, they would bring Temple Newsam to them, with a virtual picnic on Zoom. The staff at Temple Newsam house did a Tik Tok video in period costume and a podcast from Jimmy at the farm tending to the very cute farm animals. In return the Brownies painted stones with pretty patterns and flowers to put in the walled garden.

1^st Manston Guides managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions outdoors over the summer months and really enjoyed a rare opportunity to see each other in person. 2^nd Halton Guides have been even braver and continued to meet outdoors for as long as they were able to in the Autumn term. Well done to the leaders who have done a great job at adapting to whatever the weather has thrown at them!

2^nd Halton Guides tried out some interest badges and had a ‘Bake Off’ challenge; the girls baked up a storm and 8 of them completed their confectionary badge. The leaders across our division loved choosing the winners from photos but it’s a shame there was no tasting!

Whilst we have all been busy adapting to a new way of Girlguiding, one of our deputy division commissioners was also busy adapting her wedding – congratulations to Lucy who got married in the summer!

Congratulations to all the girls who have earned their first badge, completed their first theme award, earned their Bronze or Silver awards or just joined in and challenged themselves to do something new.

Well done to Sarah, Emily, Vicky and Laura who completed their Leadership qualifications this year, and to Gemma who completed her Going Away With license. 

Whilst it’s difficult to plan anything at the moment, as Division Commissioner I am really looking forward to when we can meet in person again as I will have so many awards to hand out, and we can celebrate all our achievements and what a great team we are in Templefields.