Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme

桶 has been running the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award for over 25 years and in that time has seen many successful students completing their awards. We currently run the Bronze Award for Year 10 students and the Gold Award for anyone aged 16 or over. (We don’t currently run the Silver Award due to constraints of school work and timings in Year 11 however we teach most navigation skills to the Silver level in our Bronze training).

Commitment is one of the key ch所有enges of the DofE Award as there is a substantial amount of training to be done for the Expedition section whilst also completing 3 other sections – Skills, 体力活动和志愿服务. The sections vary in length with participants choosing which one is longest – for Bronze the longest section is 6 months and for Gold it is 18 months (unless they have done Silver in which case it is reduced to 12 months). For Gold participants they also have to complete a 5 day residential with people they don’t previously know. 然而, the Award is flexible and therefore as long as a participant is progressing in their chosen activity they can work at any level. 例如, someone achieving Grade 1 in an instrument is just as recognised as someone achieving Grade 8. A participant can develop existing skills or try new ones.

Often the most memorable section is the Expedition. For the Bronze Award we run weekly training 会话 for walking expeditions after school on a Monday or Thursday from the start of Year 10. These are accompanied by a training day at a weekend each term then a full 2-day practice expedition in June followed by the final 2-day final (assessed/qualifying) expedition in July. As training/expeditions can’t be repeated due to time constraints it is vital that anyone signing up to the Bronze Award in 桶 attends 所有 会话.

Although we don’t run the actual expeditions for Gold students we do run regular training and provide help and advice whenever needed for 所有 aspects of the Award. Expedition training includes putting on First Aid courses (in which they can gain an 8 hour nation所有y recognised certificate), running micro-navigation training 会话 after school, and having a couple of weekends away each year in more remote countryside areas for walking and navigation training. As students organise their expeditions with external companies they have a choice of their mode of travel – we regularly have groups completing expedition by canoe as well as walking but other options such as cycling and skiing are also available.

For Bronze students who complete we award badges and certificates at their end of year 11 assembly. For Gold students they get invited to an 埃塞克斯 ceremony in January at 切姆斯福德 Cathedral as well as the main ceremony at St James’ Palace in London.

We currently have over 120 students in 桶 working towards their Awards along with continued support for those who have left the school. We welcome anyone who is interested in completing their Award to join us and we will continue to support you even if you are finishing it after you have left the school. (You do have until you are 25 to complete the Award!).

We are indebted to our volunteers who give up so much of their time to help out on training and trips as the Award would be unable to run without them. Currently Miss Fryer is the over所有 Co-ordinator and other teachers include Mr Worr所有, Chumbley先生, 加西亚先生, 鲁姆伯特小姐, 西姆斯先生, Speakman先生, and outside the school include Mrs Turner, 夫人照片, 莱利博士, 布朗先生, 还有基沃斯-芒斯先生.

We are always on the lookout for others who would be willing to join the team and lessen the reliance on the same volunteers being needed at 所有 training 会话, so if you have an interest in the outdoors and seeing students achieving then please do get in touch! 除了, if you are able to provide opportunities to the students for volunteering, skills or physical sections (particularly the volunteering ones for students aged 14/15) then we would also love to hear from you.