What I did:
At a recent two county training day, I ran two 1-hour sessions informing people about the Get Active Resource and the benefits of exercising young people. I had over 30 people attend the two sessions. I talked about the benefits of physical activity within the Guiding programme and promoted the different types of activities within the pack. I linked them to the various aspects of the Girlguiding UK programmes for the different sections. I also showed how it can complete the badges.
Why I did it:
I know that including physical activity within the weekly programme will be very beneficial to the young people but also to the Guiders. Many Guiders do not know what new games and activities they can play and often play the same games they have always played. I found that a lot of the activities within the resources are games and activities that can easily be done within the unit programme and the limited facilities and resources the units have.
What I wanted to achieve:
- To be enthusiastic about physical activity within the weekly meeting
- To raise the profile of the excellent resources the BHF has, particularly the Active Club resource
- To highlight the importance of physical activity and variety of activities that should be included within the weekly programme
- To show that the activities within the resource pack fit within the unit programme and the ethos of Girlguiding UK
A short description of what I did:
- They had one letter of the phrase 'physical activity' and had to identify a physical activity beginning with that letter.
- They listed the benefits of exercise.
- They were introduced to the pack and its page layout and content.
- They had to look at one section each and feedback to the group.
- They played three games from different sections of the resource.
What worked well:
Showing the resource and getting them to look at what was on the page and in the different sections was very useful. Playing some of the games was very effective in getting the group to see how easy the cards were to follow and how fun the games were.
Problems and/or issues:
There was not enough time in the session to draw out all the benefits of exercise. As the session was run in an upstairs classroom, the variety of activities that we could try was limited.
Key messages:
- Benefits of physical activity
- The fantastic variety of activities within the resource
- The activities within the resource complement the Girlguiding UK programme for all the different sections.
Other comments:
This simple 1-hour training session is a good way of introducing the unit Guiders to the resource and giving them the opportunity of obtaining the resource and using more games and activities from the pack within their units. The structure of an evening, safety and background information will have been covered during the adult leadership qualification training that each unit Guider has to complete.
Diane Card, BHF Community Development Coordinator
Active Clubs Tutor
