Duke Of Edinburgh

Why participate in the Duke of Endinburgh Award? 

The DofE is non-competitive and open to all young people – it's about setting personal challenges and pushing personal boundaries. There are three levels of DofE programme which, when successfully completed, lead to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award.  

Through their DofE, students will make friends and memories and build traits like confidence, resilience and self-esteem, which can benefit mental health. They’ll gain skills and attributes for life and work, such as problem-solving, team-working and self-motivation  and self help skills. They’ll achieve an Award that’s widely recognised by employers and nationwide.  

To achieve their Bronze Award, participants must complete four sections: Skills, Volunteering, Physical and their Expedition, although if the Expedition is not completed your child will still be receive a DofE certificate of achievement just not the full award.  Every young person’s DofE programme is personal to them – they can choose what they’d like to do for their Skills, Volunteering and Physical sections, and most activities can count. We will provide guidance and support, and students can either choose to continue an activity they already do or discover something completely new.  

The DofE website states that “The benefits of participating in the award are endless.  It is an enormously valuable achievement and is recognised worldwide. Universities and employers are looking for more than good grades and extra-curricular activities; they are looking for evidence that show more of you than your academic achievements so emphasising your involvement on your UCAS application for example can tell an institution that a young person is ambitious and has a positive attitude as well as a range of interests. There are many benefits from having a DofE Award on your CV, particularly in regards to employability. Having a DofE Award will certainly help a young person stand out from the crowd.” 

To find out how a DofE Award could benefit you now and in the future, visit the DofE website http://www.dofe.org/. 

Levels covered at FWS: 

The Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) is integrated as part of our Key Stage 4 and Post16 curriculum for students that we feel will be benefit from accessing the award. Our school curriculum is very broad and life skills are a key focus throughout. For this reason, students will be able to gain the qualification using the majority of their schoolwork. There may be occasions where additional tweaks are required but everything that is needed to complete the award will be delivered in school.    

The bronze DofE Award has 4 sections, Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition.  You must do a minimum of 3 months activity for each of the Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections. You will also have to spend an additional three months on one of these sections.  Activities for each section take a minimum of one hour a week over a set period of time, so they can fit around studying, hobbies and social lives. Students at Forest way school we be fully supported to complete all of their sections within school. Many of our students are already doing activities, clubs and volunteering in school which will help them to qualify for your award. 

The Expedition: 

Traditionally one of the sections of this award requires students to complete a two-day expedition which includes an overnight camp. This is something that we will continue to offer to all of our students. The Expedition section involves your child working as part of a small team to plan their expedition’s aim, choose a location and do some training to make sure they're fully prepared – before spending two days and one night in the countryside, school grounds can be used if this is deemed more suitable. Ahead of this, they will take part in several training sessions within the school to cover basic expedition principles and introducing them to expedition equipment. Fortunately, the majority of our students have participated in Forest Schools and they will have a real advantage on this section.  

However, following on from the pandemic there is not a necessity to complete the expedition section although we hope that almost all of our students will be able to do so. In the case of an expedition not being possible for the student they still able to achieve a Duke of Edinburgh certificate of achievement, just not the full award.    

See links below for further information.

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