What do you do on the Duke of Edinburgh Award?

Depending on the number of participants, as well as staffing, we facilitate the Bronze Award in Year 10, the Silver Award in Year 11 and Year 12, and the Gold Award in Sixth Form.

The award is made up of four sections: volunteering (giving up your time to help others), physical (improving an aspect of your physical fitness), skill (learning something new, or improving an already existing skill), and an expedition (walking for a set amount of time and camping).

Ideas for these sections can be found using the following link: https://www.dofe.org/do/ideas/

Entry onto the course, in any year group, begins in the Autumn term as participants begin their volunteer, skill, and physical sections.  Please see below for the time participants must spend in each section at each level:

At each level, participants receive in-house training at the compulsory weekly meetings after school.

At Bronze level, participants learn basic map reading, compass use, first aid and camp craft skills. In addition, they create routes and route cards as part of preparation for the expedition (taking place in the Summer term).

At Silver and Gold level, participants become more independent in plotting their own routes and creating route cards using the skills they have previously learnt with less guidance from the staff team.

Where can I find more information?

The Duke of Edinburgh website has lots of useful information about the award: https://www.dofe.org/