Qualifications Information

Senior Section Qualifications

Look Wider

• Eight Octants
• Each Octant has three phases
• Phase 1: Try three new activities
• Phase 2: Do an activity for 12 hours
• Phase 3: Long term challenge:  30 hours, gaining a qualification or teaching something to others.
• If you complete all three phases in an Octant you get an Octant certificate.
• If you create all 8 phase ones and phase twos, you get the Chief Guide’s award.  This is the second highest award you can get in senior section.

Octants are: 

• Creativity
  Fit For Life
  Community Action
  Out Of Doors
  International
  Independent Living
  Personal Values
  Leadership

Young Leader Qualification

Can be done between the ages of 14 and 18
You don’t have to do the qualification if you’re a Young Leader
The qualification consists of two modules, completed practically rather than through tests or examinations.
 
Module 1 - Your role in the programme
This allows you to demonstrate how well you know and understand the programme for the section you're working with. For example, you can show that you can lead a Pow Wow if you work with a Brownie pack. If you change the section you help out with, you'll need to repeat this module.
 
Module 2 - Your role in Girlguiding
This module is about showing you understand The Senior Section Promise. It'll also test that you understand that Leadership is about the relationships between you and:
all the members of the unit
the rest of the Unit Team
other Leaders in your area
the wider community.

Leadership Qualification

You can start your Adult Leadership qualification from 16, but you can’t become a leader until the day you’re 18.
You need to do Module 1 and 2 (If you’ve not already done them as a Young Leader)
Plus Module 3 to become an Assistant Leader - Your role in safety and unit administration
 
Safety is covered by showing you can effectively communicate with parents and the local community, and that the unit's programme is carried out in a safe environment. Unit administration refers to your responsibility for unit funds.
 
And Module 3 and Module 4 to become a Unit Leader so you can run a Unit:  

Module 4, Your role in managing the unit
This is optional for Assistant Leaders but mandatory for Unit Leaders. Good unit management is measured here by maintaining effective record-keeping systems and ensuring that effective communication takes place locally.

Queen’s Guide Award

The highest award you can get in GirlGuiding
Can be done between the ages of 16 and 25.
It must be completed within 3 years of starting.
You may take a 12 month break while doing the award.

• Service in guiding - take an active role in guiding at a range of levels.
• Outdoor challenge - build your teamwork and leadership skills in a glorious outdoor setting. Where you go and what you do is up to you!
• Personal skill development - start a new skill and develop it, or take an existing skill to a new level for a minimum of 60 hours over 12 months. A personal skill could be anything from ballet to circus skills, or from performing magic tricks to playing a musical instrument.
• Community action - get more involved with the world around you and gain a greater understanding of it through practical and research projects of your choice.
• Residential - spend two nights and three days away from home with new people

Commonwealth Award

• There is no time limit or restriction on completing the award. You can do it by yourself or with other Guides or Senior Section members.
• Three compulsory challenges include:
• History of guiding: being able to chart guiding from its beginning at the Crystal Palace rally in 1909.
• Knowledge of the Commonwealth: knowing about another Commonwealth countries and the development of the Commonwealth of Nations.
• Community Action: carrying out a minimum of 20 hours' service in your community.
• You can then choose two further challenges from:
• health
• environment
• culture heritage
• fit for life
• out of doors
• public speaking and debating
• creative writing
• citizenship
• investigation

Overnight Permit
 
The Overnight Permit allows any Senior Section member to take up to eight people from The Senior Section or Guide section away overnight for no longer than 24 hours. Three modules must be completed.


Senior Section Permit
 
The Senior Section Permit allows any Senior Section member to do the same as the overnight permit but for a camp or holiday of two nights or more. A minimum of six modules must be completed, depending on the event and the age of the participants.


Camp Permit Modules

• Plan an event
• Organise and administer an event
• Plan for the safety and security of all
• Organise catering arrangements
• Make health and first aid arrangements
• Organise a programme of activties for participants
• Organise the care and maintenance of campsite equipment
• Prepare and run a mobile expedition
• Travelling abroad

A Fun Packed Term

We may only meet every other week, but we've still managed to pack a lot of fun into the term. 

This term, we've done: 

Bingo, planning, chocolate fondue, board games evening, bake sale planning, music evening, joining in the Guide bonfire, planning our performance for the Christmas carol service, a stress relief and relaxation evening (including burning all our worries!), the Christmas concert, a trip to London and we STILL have time for one more meeting, a massive Christmas party with food, visiting 13+ Guides and all the games we used to love as little kids, like musical chairs, pass the parcel, and pin the nose on the snowman! 

Here's to an even more exciting term after Christmas! 

    

Charity Cake Sale

This term, we decided that we wanted to select a charity to raise some money for.  Between us we suggested various charities, but in the end chose the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, as this is something that affects several people that we know and are close to. 

Next step was to figure out how to raise the money, and in the end we decided that a cake sale would be the easiest way to do this.  After discussing it with the district Guiders, we were given two opportunities to sell cakes: one at the Guide Halloween/bonfire party where all three Guide groups would be there, and one after the District Carol Service.  

We had some amazing things baked:  Harry Potter Cookies, decorated with houses, Millionaire's shortbread, great big chocolate cakes, beautifully decorated fairy cakes, and Malteasers tray bake just to name a few.  

In total, we made £110.68 for the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, which was a great effort! 

Walking In A Winter Wonder London

It was the first Saturday in December, and appropriately cold as we assembled early in the morning for our Winter Wonderland trip up to London.  We'd wrapped up warm, brought spare socks along, and checked our bags for important essentials (money, tickets, strawberry liquorice laces).  Later on we'd realise that we'd forgotten some more important items like drinks and, in the author's case, normal glasses (as opposed to prescription sunglasses) but hey ho!

A fortuitously chosen fast train landed us in Central London and we made our way straight over the the Natural History Museum for our first adventure - ice skating.  The rink at the Museum is great - fairly big and with a Christmas Tree in the middle - the skating session lasted 50 minutes and everyone had great fun getting gradually more and more confident on the ice. 

Next stop was Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, so we jumped on the number 74 bus, complete with super fast, slightly scary bus driver, and headed up past Harrods and House of Fraser to Hyde Park Corner. 
Winter Wonderland is a big festival in Hyde Park with food stalls, a Christmas market, fairground rides, Santa's Grotto, and Ice Rink, a Circus and an Ice Sculpture walk.  We headed in to the crowds, with the first aim of finding food.  Typically we all wanted food from different stalls, so we waited while we all ate.  And then ate some more.  Crepes, burgers, steak sandwiches, chips, sweets, candy floss and pretzels.  That was between five of us, but even so! 

We wandered through the market area, which was very long and extremely busy.  It was also really cold on Saturday, and despite us being well wrapped up, we reached a point where it was too busy, we were too cold, and suddenly the idea of going somewhere warm where we could sit down was rather appealing.  So we decided to carry on with the Christmas theme at the cinema and go and see Nativity 2 at the cinema! Which of course meant popcorn and fizzy drinks....

After the cinema we completed the Christmas-sy-ness by popping our heads very quickly into Regent Street to see the lights there (and take some mandatory blurry photos) before heading back to the station to consume the remainder of the candy floss and sweets on the train!

It was a great day, and I think we're all up for a London 2013 trip!

What Does Music Mean To You?

Music can mean so many different things to people.  It can make us happy, sad, thoughtful, bring back good times, bad times, trigger particular memories or feelings. 
A few weeks ago we had a meeting where we each shared music that meant something to us.  It was a really interesting evening and a great way of getting to know each other as the group has really grown this term.  

What really struck me was how brave people were with their choices.  People shared music that had been played at the funerals of loved ones, pieces that made them think of siblings, pieces that had had got them through hard times when they were being bullied or feeling down, and pieces that reminded them of special friends.  

I really enjoyed getting a little insight into the rest of the group through this activity, and also getting to know some music I'd not heard before.

What piece of music would you pick to talk about?

New Term, new plans!

So, we're back for the new term, with three new Rangers, and lots of Guides visiting us most weeks.  We had a great first meeting this week:  getting to know you ice breakers, programme planning, a very tense game of  bingo and chocolate fondue! 

We've come up with a great programme for this term including: 

A trip to London
Bonfire Party
"Dealing with stress" evening
Helping at the food bank
"Music that means something" evening
Christmas Meal
Board Games meeting

We're certainly going from strength to strength at the moment - here's to it continuing!

New Guiding Year

It's nearly the start of the new Guiding year, and there are exciting times ahead for Princes Risborough Rangers.  We've got two new Rangers starting this term, and hopefully more as the year goes on.  We're looking forward to putting together a really interesting and exciting programme, so watch this space for more details!