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
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.
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.
Thank you for supporting our expedition
Without the advice and equipment loaned from the Police Cadets organised by Anthony Jones we would never have been able to complete our overnight camp. This was our first ever expedition and as a school we have no overnight camping equipment such as tents etc. When we got in touch with Anthony he did all he could to make our camp a success. We are incredibly grateful for the loaning of tents, roll mats and rucksacks. They have kindly offered to support the expedition next year by providing the same equipment, although our hope is that we can do some fundraising and obtain our own equipment.
Richard Brown is an employee of Ford and Slater DAF whose wife works at Forest Way School. When he heard about our DofE expedition he kindly offered to support us. Richard is an Army Cadet instructor and DofE trainer and has a vast experience as he has completed DofE Silver award. Richard attended both of our practice expedition days at the start of the Autumn term and was able to help students and staff to practice both their camp and navigating skills. Richards employers generously granted him two days off work to attend both of our final expedition days. Many thanks to Ford and Slater DAF for allowing Richard to be able to support our expedition and take two days out of work. On both days Richard joined the hiking groups at Bradgate Park and was able to teach the students basic navigating skills whilst also working on soft skills such as teamwork and never leaving a friend to fall behind. Richard also shared his expertise in putting up tents, guiding the students whilst they were setting up camp. He stayed well into the evening ensuring that everyone was settled and happy. A huge thank you to Richard for not only supporting the students but also providing vital staff training too!
Kieran Dexter works at Keyham Lodge School which is part of the Discovery Trust schools. Keyham Lodge supported our expedition by allowing Kieran two days out of school and a big thank you to them. Kieran was then able to be our DofE expedition assessor free of charge. This helped us to keep our costs low. We are grateful to Kieran for not only offering to assess the students completing the expedition but also for the time he spent advising during our planning stage. He was able to share his expertise on various team building activities, timings along with the logistics of running the two days.
Our first ever expedition was a huge success, the students feedback has been incredible. We have learnt an awful lot and are already beginning to plan next years. We would love to have our own camping equipment and expedition kit for our students to be able use during their practice activities as well as the final expedition. We understand that things are difficult in the current economic climate but if you or any of the companies that you have links with are able to donate in any way please do get in touch.
forestway@forestway.leics.sch.uk
See links below for further information – our expedition newsletter is also linked below please take a look!