Celebrate UK Parliament Week with your unit

This year, UK Parliament Week is taking place from 18-24 November.

UK Parliament Week spreads the word about what parliament is, what it does and how to get involved. It’s a great opportunity to get members of all ages thinking about the changes they’d like to see, and this year we’re asking girls to write to their MPs about one important topic: their safety.

Rising levels of sexism and misogyny are affecting girls of all ages, with the 2024 Girls’ Attitudes Survey highlighting that girls feel less safe now than they have in the past. 47% of 11-21 year olds feel less safe because of sexism, a sharp rise since 10 years ago.

Girls are facing increasing levels of sexism and harassment in schools, online and in public. We want girls to be at the forefront of pushing for change that will actually impact their lives and build a fairer, safer United Kingdom.

The advocate panel have joined units from across the country over the last year in parliament, supporting younger girls to come and take the fight for gender equality directly to MPs. By encouraging units to write to their MP, we can continue to push for local and national action to keep girls safe.

UK Parliament Week is all about getting girls involved in democracy and decision-making, and we’re keen to make sure the letters they write are about the issues they’re most passionate about. We’ve included some suggestions below for activities you could do with girls to inspire them. These activities can be used alongside the UK Parliament Week resources. The most important thing is that the girls’ voices shine through, so don’t feel limited by the suggestions!

Rainbows

Encourage the girls to think about the brilliant things they do in their unit, and about things that can make their schools or local area a better place. We’d encourage Rainbow leaders to take charge of writing the letter on behalf of your unit, with suggestions from the girls. You could also encourage Rainbows to draw the improvements they’d like to see. Download the letter templates for Rainbows.

Brownies

We’d encourage Brownies to write their own letters as getting their voices across is so important! Brownies might also suggest ways of improving their local area to make it safer, like better street lighting. But they could also think about the ways in which girls might be treated differently from boys and why they rightly believe girls can do anything. They might talk about the importance of girls being treated the same as boys, the power of friendship and why they love Girlguiding. Download the letter templates for Brownies.

Guides

Guides can be very opinionated, and we encourage that! Guides might be old enough to speak about things like sexist jokes at school and how this makes them feel. Guides could write their own letters focusing on the need for politicians to take the voices of all girls seriously, and might want to focus on things like safety at night and online. Download the letter templates for Guides.

Rangers

Rangers should be encouraged to think boldly about what would make them and girls their age feel safer in their local area - whether that’s tackling harassment, or more being done about misogynist influencers online. Download the letter templates for Rangers.

Lots of activities in the Girlguiding programme link to the themes of UK Parliament Week, especially from our take action theme. If you’re looking for more ways to celebrate UK Parliament week with your unit, check our advice for inviting a decision maker to your unit meeting.

How are you planning to celebrate UK Parliament Week with your unit? Have you tried out our letter-writing activities? Tell us all about it by emailing [email protected].