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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Game share

What’s your favourite game? It’s time to share it with your friends and practise teaching and leading the group.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Equipment for the chosen games

Get ready to play

  1. Everyone should think of games they enjoy playing. They should choose one game they’d like to share – they should know the rules for the game they choose, and they should be able to explain it. 
  2. The person leading the activity should pick some people to share their games with others as game leaders. They should do this the session before they’ll share the game, so the game leaders have time to think about how they’ll explain (and the person leading the activity has a chance to get anything the game leaders need).
  1. The person leading the activity should make sure they know how much space will be needed for each of the games (and what equipment people will need) before they plan the game-sharing session.

Teach the game

  1. The game leaders should set up any equipment their game needs. 
  2. The person leading the activity should split everyone equally between the game leaders, so roughly the same number of people are ready to play each game.
  1. The person leading the activity should remind everyone that it’s important to listen carefully to the game leader so everyone knows what to do. 
  2. The game leader should slowly and carefully explain the game to the players. They should explain the rules, how to use any equipment, and how to stay safe (including safely rules, for example, throwing a ball underarm, how the game ends, or being careful not to bump into other people). 
  3. The game leader should check that all of the players understand the rules. They could ask questions, or ask someone to explain the rules back to them.

Play on

  1. Everyone should practise the game in a test round. This shouldn’t be competitive – it’s just to make sure everyone understands the rules. The game leader shouldn’t join in as people may need their help (for example, they may need to remind people of a rule or answer questions). 
  2. After the practice round, the game leader should run through the rules again and check if anyone needs anything to be explained again. 
  3. Everyone should play the game for a few rounds. 
  4. Once the game is over, the players should tell the game leader how they found the game. Was it tricky? Were the rules easy to understand? Did they have fun? 
  5. The game leaders should stay in the same place and reset any equipment. The players should move to the next game. 
  6. Everyone should repeat the steps in ‘Teach the game’ and ‘Play on’ to learn the new game. The game leaders should think about any feedback they were given; they may want to test new rules or adapt the game to make it even better. 
  7. Once the players have learned all of the games, everyone should gather together to hear how the game leaders found the activity.

Fun in review

  1. The game leaders should take it in turns to share how they found being the leader, and anything they noticed about the people playing. Were people good at sticking to the rules? Did they find it easy to explain the game? 
  2. Everyone should thank the game leaders for being brave enough to give leading a go and for helping everyone have fun.

Reflection

This activity needed good leaders and great communicators. The game leaders needed to give clear instructions so everyone understood how the game worked, and the players needed to listen carefully and tell the game leader if they didn’t understand. 

How did the game leaders find leading the game? Did anyone make any changes to the game’s rules, or the way they explained the game, as they went along? What do the players think the game leaders did well? Were there anything things they could improve? People may think about giving clear instructions, being patient, or saying ‘well done’ when people tried their best.

Everyone learned skills in this game, whatever their role. When else could people use skills such as teaching others, communicating, or leading? They pop up in all sorts of areas of life but people may think about helping a younger sibling, being in a sports team, or working in groups at school.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Contact games and activities

Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.

Game leaders could work alone or in pairs. It might be helpful to have some older helpers on hand to support the game leader if they need it. Why not return to the games at a later date to encourage people to keep practising their leadership skills? 

Make sure the games people choose are accessible to everyone – help game leaders if they need support to choose or adapt a game.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers My Skills Challenge Award
Cubs Team Leader Challenge Award
Cubs YouShape Award: Lead
Beavers YouShape Award: Lead

Why not ask people to take it in turns to lead one new game each time you meet? It might take a while, but everyone will get a turn to lead, and best of all you won’t run out of new fun games to try.

Encourage people to think up their own games or adapt their favourites. Everyone else could vote for their favourites at the end – maybe you could create a list of section favourites.