PENGUIN GUIDE 1 Contents Welcome to St John 2 Penguin programme overview 3 Safety Penguin 11 Safety in and around the home 12 Road safety 15 Water safety 18 Safety outdoors 21 Healthy Penguin 23 Food 24 Clothing 26 Cleanliness 27 Resourceful Penguin 31 Gardening 32 The environment 34 Protecting New Zealand 35 Resources in the community 37 Hobbies Penguin 39 Creative 40 The performing arts 41 Hobbies 42 Games Penguin 44 Games – old and new 45 Team Skills 45 Caring Penguin 47 The Kindness Project 48 Caring for the elderly 48 Caring for the young 49 Caring for the sick 50 Caring in the Community 50 Pet care 51 First Aid Penguin 53 Emergency aid 54 Breathing 56 Bleeding and burns 58 Communication Penguin 61 Verbal 62 Visual 63 Written 64 St John Penguin 66 The beginnings of St John 67 St John in New Zealand 68 St John drill commands 70 Welcome to St John 2 Welcome to St John Our vision To become the youth development programme of choice in Aotearoa; in the outcomes for young people, quality of delivery and connection with the community. Our mission Deliver a vibrant leadership and first aid programme, focused on development and successes of young people which enhances health and wellbeing in our community. The Youth programme is for all young people from 6 to 18 years. Among the skills our penguins and cadets develop, there are fantastic opportunities to meet new people, experience new things and of course, have fun! We encourage leadership and development by promoting community service, learning life skills and providing real leadership opportunities and training. During time with St John we want young people to develop your skills in caring for people and an ability to deal with emergency situations. We would like to develop a sense of responsibility and to belong to an organisation that plays an important role in New Zealand. Penguin programme overview 3 How it works Penguin badges Penguins meet once a week during the school term First aid: Emergency breathing, bleeding, burns, at their local youth division. Contact between other bones penguin groups is encouraged through various social functions. Penguins follow a course of nine badges, Safety: Safety outdoors, in the home, on the road each divided into main topics. For each badge that is and in the water completed, a penguin is awarded a colourful sew-on Hobbies: Creative, performing, indoor and badge and matching certificate. outdoors The penguin meetings are intended to be Healthy: Clothing, food, keeping fit and clean educational, but also great fun, often involving Communications: Audio, verbal, written and games, activities and sports. Penguin groups visual communication frequently organise trips, camps, excursions and Games: Sports, team building and designing picnics, and also attend other St John events and games competitions. Caring: Caring for the young, elderly, pets and the Aims sick Resourceful: Nature, resources in the community The purpose of the programme is: and the environment • to provide a friendly, safe and relaxed environment, in which children can both learn St John: St John in New Zealand, overseas and and have fun, gaining a sense of achievement history through everything they do • to stimulate the interest of children in the concept Penguin uniform and aims of St John at a very young age. This is Penguins wear a white polo shirt and black achieved through their participation in a wide sweatshirt that is manufactured specially and has an variety of activities, including basic first aid. embroidered badge on the front. Penguins supply • to encourage the penguins to develop their black pants or shorts to wear with their issued common sense, honesty, courage, self-control and uniform. a sense of fair-play There is a black brassard on the sleeve where the • to provide a junior section of St John, establishing individual badges are worn. A black baseball cap with strong links with the St John Youth movement the St John logo on the front is also worn. The cost for and encouraging and preparing youngsters to the uniform is met by area committees or by region progress into St John Youth. after receiving a uniform bond of $25. Penguin promise Penguin brassard I promise to be a good Penguin and try to do my very The numbers on the diagram represent the order in best in absolutely everything. which you receive your Penguin badges. You should sew your first badge on at 1, your second at 2, and so Programme on until you achieve your Super Penguin badge. It usually takes two years to complete all 9 badges. A penguin who succeeds in completing all the badges becomes a “super penguin” and is awarded a certificate and sew-on badge to mark his/her achievement. At the age of eight, penguins can move up to a St John Youth division and begin working towards the Grand Prior’s Award. They cannot join a cadet group before their eighth birthday, and cannot remain in a penguin group when they reach the age of nine. 4 Penguin example: Penguin badges are placed on the brassard (starting in the bottom right) in the order they are received. Attendance badges are placed in the bottom left and replaced as you receive a new one each year (i.e. 1 year attendance badge is replaced by 2 years attendance badge, and so on..). 12 10 11 6 4 5 3 1 2 9 8 7 6 5 9 7 8 1 4 3 2 1 1 15 13 14 3 Community Service To become a youth leader, you go through an Forming a penguin application process that includes completing a group standard application form, going through a police check clearance and providing details of two personal How can I become a youth leader of a penguin referees. There is also a requirement to become group? familiar with the St John Child Protection Policy, and Youth leaders delivering the penguin programme to sign a declaration to say that this is the case. are not obliged to be uniformed St John members, nor are they obliged to have any qualifications in first Finding a meeting place aid or caring for the sick. However, they must attend Some penguin groups are established as a result of a a basic life support course (through St John) and are youth division of cadets wishing to expand to include encouraged to attend a St John first aid course. There younger penguins. In this case the meeting place can are no age requirements to be a leader of penguins, often be shared, usually with the penguins and cadets with the only condition being suitability to complete meeting on the same site but on different evenings, or the task, and this is assessed on an individual basis by at different times. the St John management. However, sometimes a penguin group is started Penguin groups are sometimes run by under 18 NCO’s independently – simply by one or more enthusiastic (senior cadets) from the youth division, however individuals. In this case, when choosing a meeting during these instances it is still required to have an place it is necessary to establish the number of over 18 leader present to ensure the care and safety of children who are interested in attending regularly and penguins in the group – and to handle relationships to consider the distance they will each have to travel. with regional office, hall lease etc. It will also be necessary to consider the time of day at which you will be meeting. A youth leader is a voluntary position, and the individual must be enthusiastic, patient, energetic To find a venue, try approaching your local council, and committed, with an ability to work well with corporate social club, sports club, church (or other youngsters and preferably a good sense of humour! place of worship), school or of course St John buildings. Many groups meet in school halls, parish 5 halls, community centres, and in most cases their advertised by local shops, community centres, clinics, nearest St John complex. and libraries. To help with the funding of the event, a youth leader of the penguin group should try A meeting place must have a large hall or indoor area approaching his/her local area committee, regional in which games and activities can take place and office or local companies. penguins will also need to use toilets and washing up facilities. An indoor meeting place is vital, not It is also vital for the youth leader to have active only to provide shelter in the event of bad weather, support in the running of a penguin group preferably but also as a base for the penguins and a place from in the form of an assistant leader. At all times, it is which they can be collected. This does not mean that important to maintain the correct ratio of youth activities must be restricted to the indoor facilities; leader to penguins (as stated in Child Protection during fine weather it can be much more fun to Policy) and this can be assisted by using as many meet outside and perhaps organise trips, camps and willing helpers as possible. It is often worth asking picnics. any enthusiastic parents if they might consider helping out. If anyone starts to attend regularly All visits off site must have a risk management (more than twice) then they should be taken through analysis completed (as per the Child Protection the application process. While some may see this Policy), and the required leader to penguin ratio be as cumbersome, it should be explained that these met.