What girls do in our programme

Girls will get involved in unit meeting activities, skills builders activities and earn badges

Our programme activities and badges are a great way for girls to try new things and develop their skills.

Find out what they do by clicking on the links below:

Unit meeting activities (UMAs)

UMAs are fun, ready-to-go activities that girls do in unit meetings with their local Girlguiding group. They’re about taking part, trying new things and working together as a group. They could be a quick 10 minute game or a 40 minute group activity.

We’ve worked with our members to develop lots of new activities on topics that girls and young women told us they wanted to explore with their friends at their regular meetings.

Girls can explore DIY, self-defence, friendship, exploring nature, animals and 3D craft and design – and many, many more! And they all sit within our programme themes and count towards earning a theme award. Leaders can record the activities from each meeting in the recording section of GO.

Get activity packs for your unit

Volunteers can pick up or download packs of activities for their units through our online shop.

Skills builders

Skills builders are designed to help girls learn skills like camping, first aid and communication as a group in their unit meetings. They’re done in stages, so girls get to grow with us no matter what section they're in – Rainbows, Brownies, Guides or Rangers.

For example, as they progress through the stages of the innovate skills builder, girls learn about design, construction and experimenting. It introduces them to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in a fun and relatable way. By the time they reach stage 5 as a Guide, they’ll have gained some very valuable skills, got a great set of badges and had a lot of fun!

There are...

  • 6 stages in a skills builder.
  • 5 activities to do at each stage.
  • 12 different skills builder topics to try.
  • 2 skills builder topics for each of the 6 programme themes.

Our members told us that they missed the feeling of progressing through Girlguiding that came with some of our older activities. So we launched skills builders in 2018 to help girls tackle new topics, reach their potential and grow their abilities in ways that are relevant to their experiences in Girlguiding and beyond!

  1. Girls completing any stage from 1-5 can complete 4 out of the 5 activities to achieve a skills builder badge. For stage 6, all 5 activities need to be completed. Some skills builder stages have linked activities – where it clearly says they must be done in order. With these stages, linked activities should be prioritised and make up part of the four completed activities.
  2. Skills builders work brilliantly as a small group activity. This means that several groups can be working on a different stage, or different topics, in the same meeting.
  3. Girls work with you as a leader to decide what skills builder they’d like to do together.
  4. There’s no restriction on the lowest stage a girl can start on. So if your Brownie feels nervous about stage 2 but ready for stage 1, they can start there. There's an upper limit for each section to encourage girls to develop a range of skills. Rainbows can’t go higher than stage 2, Brownies stage 3, Guides stage 5 and the Rangers section can reach stage 6.
  5. Around 67% of our volunteers report that their unit typically completes 1 skills builder stage a term. The majority of units deliver skills builder activities as a whole unit or in smaller groups - that’s great!
  6. Skills builders are designed to be done in stages. Doing them once a term gives girls the perfect balance of doing fun unit meeting activities and developing their skills as a group.

 

Download UMAs and skills builders for free

Download PDFs of our programme activity packs from the online shop for free.

Interest badges

Did you know interest badges are the thing about programme girls enjoy the most? And they can now be done in units too! From blogging to dancing, our interest badges are based on what girls tell us they’d like to do so they get to explore new hobbies or dig deeper into their passions.

There are...

  • 12 interest badges for Rainbows (2 per theme). 
  • 18 interest badges for Brownies (3 per theme). 
  • 24 interest badges for Guides (4 per theme). 
  • 18 interest badges for Rangers (3 per theme). 

Here's how girls complete them:

  1. Girls can complete them inside or outside of their units. This could be at home, on holiday or wherever they like.
  2. Girls choose when they do them. It could be over the weekend, in just a few hours or around other commitments your girl has.
  3. Girls decide how they complete challenges. Each interest badge contains 3 challenges and we let girls choose how to do them in their own unique and creative way.
  4. Girls share what they've done with the volunteer who runs your local unit. When the activities have been completed, their leader will sign it off in their badge book.

Interest badges give girls the chance to personalise their experience and develop their independence and self-confidence. Girls choose which badges they do and how and when they do them and who with. The badges introduce them to a range of activities - who knows, a badge could introduce a girl to an interest she treasures for the rest of her life.

Look out for 72 new interest badges coming in 2025

There’s already 72 interest badges available for girls to do at home or with their units. In summer 2025, you can expect to see that number double! We’re working directly with volunteers, girls and their parents or carers to give them more badges they love. Over 20,000 members have had their say in the project so far. 

1. You share your thoughts on our badges and activities.

When we first launched our programme in 2018, we promised to review it after 5 years. In 2023, over 14,000 girls, volunteers and parents or carers had their say about the experience of doing or delivering our programme. They told us what they liked and didn’t like about the activities, badges, resources and more. This helps us figure out how we can create more of what girls love, support leaders and bring more flexibility to everyone.

Read what you told us about our programme.

2. You put badges and activities to the test

Every single badge has been tested by girls in guiding. Through our programme testing pool, thousands of girls in units across the UK get to be the first to try new badges and activities we’re creating.

Join our programme activity testing pool.

3. You have a say in the badge design

Our members also input into what badges look like. Every badge has been checked to make sure that the writing is legible, the colours and illustrations look right, and when it comes to Brownies that they fit on the sash! Originally, we weren’t sure if badges should only feature an illustration. But the feedback was clear - girls wanted the badge name to help them remember what the badge was when looking back over their guiding experience.

Plus, our youth steering group Amplify is also overseeing what our new interest badges look like.

Collect them all

Girls in guiding can explore everything from agility to zero waste with our huge range of badges. See them all in our badge finder.