Duke of Edinburgh Award
What is the DofE Award?
The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a life-changing experience, a fun time with friends, an opportunity to discover new interests and talents, a tool to develop essential skills for life and work and a recognised mark of achievement that respected by employers.
There are four sections to complete at Bronze and Silver level and five sections at Gold. They involve helping the community/environment, becoming fitter, developing new skills, planning, training for and completing an expedition and, for Gold only, working with a team on a residential activity.
Any young person can do their DofE – regardless of ability, gender, background or location. Achieving an Award isn’t a competition or about being first. It’s all about setting personal challenges and pushing personal boundaries.
Through the DofE programme young people have fun, make friends, improve their self-esteem and build confidence. They gain essential skills and attributes for work and life such as resilience, problem-solving, team-working, communication and drive, enhancing CVs and university and job applications. Top employers also recognise the work-ready skills Award holders bring to their business.
For more information on the Duke of Edinburgh Awards visit https://www.dofe.org/
Bronze and Silver Awards
September marks the end of this year’s Duke of Edinburgh award expedition season. This year we have supported over 140 students across years 10, 11 and 13 with either their Bronze or Silver expedition.
This year we ran two very successful but different Bronze expeditions in Epping Forest. During our July expedition students battled extreme temperatures and really relied on their fitness levels to complete their routes. Our September group however, although benefitted from warm walking conditions, had to brave extremely cold night time temperatures. Throughout both expeditions, students relied on their training to navigate through the forest along their pre planned walking routes. Although all groups made it safely through, a number of groups had their skills put to the test after taking wrong turns or misreading the maps before making it back to camp.
This year we had a wide range of food being cooked up on the stoves including spaghetti Bolognese, vegetable stew and a number of different types of curry. An energy rich meal is extremely important during the expedition to replace all of the calories used on day one, but also to be ready for the second day’s walk.
Our first Silver award was a huge success with over 70 year 10 and year 12 students taking part in Ashdown Forest. They had to battle extreme rain on day one which made for a very challenging walk and a soggy night but were treated to warm sun on days two and three. The Silver award is a big step up from the Bronze award and I was extremely proud of how students showed resilience to overcome the challenges and successfully complete their award.
You can see below photos from our September 2022 Duke of Edinburgh trip.
This year we begin our awards all over again and for the first time offering the Gold award. I look forward to another successful year and set of expeditions in 2023.
Mr James (Head of PE and Outdoor Education)
Key Dates
Dates for 2022/23 are to be confirmed.