Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It was lovely to see so many of you attend the Parents Information Evening for this year’s Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award on Monday of this week.
This will be the last letter sent around to the whole year group, from now on communication will only be sent to the Parents who have paid the £20 deposit, this list will then be the set list of Students who are taking part in the Award this year.
The deposit of £20 is now available to pay on Scopay and if we could have all deposits in by the end of November that would be ideal. If this is not possible then please just let me know, my contact details will be at the bottom of this letter.
As explained before in the first letter and on Monday evening, the DofE is a personal achievement award that encourages young people to set themselves goals, work towards them and achieve success. Throughout the year all students will complete a Volunteering section for either 3 or 6 months (roughly an hour a week where possible), during this time students will give back to the community through unpaid work. This could include volunteering at a local charity, helping out at a school or community centre, or participating in environmental projects. Last year we had students volunteer afterschool at Paddock Wood Primary, we had students help out at a local scout group and then students who simply helped out an elderly neighbour in the garden or by taking out their rubbish every week.
The second section will be a Physical section running over either 3 or 6 months again, this section promotes a healthy and active lifestyle. Participants must choose a physical activity that they enjoy and commit to doing it regularly. This could be anything from sports to dancing to hiking. Students who are already part of sports teams will already be meeting this requirement but for some it could simply be getting off the bus at a stop early and walking the rest.
The third section is the Skills section, again this will run over either 3 or 6 months, this is your choice and only one of your sections has to run for 6 months, this section allows participants to develop new skills or improve existing ones. They must choose a skill and work towards achieving a goal related to it. This could be learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, or taking up a hobby. The most popular new skill by far last year was cooking at home. For each section students will upload evidence of what they have been doing onto the DofE App and at the end of the section will ask someone to fill out an Assessor report for them, summarising the activities they have participated in.
When the students are signed up and the deposit has been paid we will get together and in school, we will sign everyone up onto the eDofE system, this is the system we use to monitor how students are progressing with their Awards. Once we have signed students up you will receive a letter in the post with all of this information on it and also a Discount Card you can use in multiple retailers, very useful when buy Kit for Expeditions.
I have attached below links to the following,
The Duke of Edinburgh Website – https://www.dofe.org/
Information on Sections and Ideas for Sections – https://www.dofe.org/do/ideas/
The E3 Expeditions Website, these are the people who will run our expeditions for us this year. I have worked with Bryn and Andy, probably for about 8 years at Mascalls and at my previous school. – https://e3adventures.com/
Below also please find attached screenshots from the powerpoint shown during the Parents Information Evening which will give you some dates for the diary and information on costs.
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me,
Mr Sam Collis (sam.collis@mascallsacademy.org.uk) | Inclusion Manager for Earhart College, Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator
