Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award 24/25
Is your child ready to challenge themselves, develop new skills and make lifelong friendships? If so, then the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme is the perfect opportunity.
The DofE is a personal achievement award that encourages young people to set themselves goals, work towards them and achieve success. It is a fantastic way to:
- Build confidence and resilience: By overcoming challenges and stepping outside their comfort zone.
- Develop essential life skills: Such as teamwork, leadership and problem solving.
- Make a positive impact on their community: Through the volunteering section and helping others. During the school year, like last year, we will run volunteering activities for the whole DofE cohort to participate in. Last year we were present at the Paddock Wood Half Marathon, we collected and donated food for the Paddock Wood Food Bank, and we volunteered our services for a local lunch at the community centre.
The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award is open to all Year 9 students this year. Throughout the year each student will complete 4 sections of work that will ultimately lead to their completion of the Award.
- Volunteering: This section involves giving 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.
- Physical Activity: 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.
- Skills: 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.
- Expedition: This section involves planning and completing an adventurous journey in the outdoors with their friends. The expedition is designed to challenge participants both physically and mentally. For the Bronze award, unlike last year where we completed just one expedition, this year we will complete a 50% staff led training expedition in the Ashdown Forest and then a few weeks later will complete their assessed expedition in the Tunbridge Wells area. Expeditions run over two days and one night.
The DofE is a flexible program that can be tailored to suit individual interests and abilities.
Costs
The costs to join and complete this year’s Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award is £260.
Each student pays a £28 enrolment fee to the Duke of Edinburgh charity and this will also give them access to the online eDofE system and issue them with a discount card to multiple outdoor retailers. The expeditions this year will cost us £114 per student, per expedition to run. As an Academy we will continue to use Andy and his Partners at E3 Adventures with whom we have a long standing relationship with to lead us safely on these expeditions. They take care of camping fees, tents and all cooking equipment, all the necessary insurance and risk assessments and more importantly provide expertly trained staff over the two days and one night to lead us out safely on each expedition. Without Andy and his team we could not have a Duke of Edinburgh programme at school at this time. The remaining £4 will contribute to the school DofE fund helping us run Awards evenings and provide any emergency kit to students whilst out on Expeditions.
As always, we will support where we can if paying the full price for this Award is simply not possible at the moment. This Award is for everyone and if you are worried or concerned about any part then please do not hesitate to contact me – sam.collis@mascallsacademy.org.uk
What next?
We will hold a Year 9 Assembly to explain the Award to students too within the next few weeks but if you are interested now then please speak with your child and fill out the attached Google Form here. From there you can pay a £20 non refundable deposit on Scopay to secure your child’s place for this year, this is then deducted from the overall cost of the award. I am keen for as many students as possible to take part and make this a really fantastic cohort. For those parents and students who express their interest we will then hold a parents information evening giving you the opportunity to ask any questions and hear from us as a DofE team, Andy Camis from E3 Adventures who run our Expeditions and Katrina Gadsby who is our representative from the Duke of Edinburgh Charity. After that we will kick start the year.
I have attached below a few useful links for you to look at,
- Duke of Edinburgh Website – https://www.dofe.org/
- Information about Sections – https://www.dofe.org/do/sections/
- Ideas for different Activities – https://www.dofe.org/do/ideas/
- E3 Adventures – https://e3adventures.com/
I look forward to meeting you all soon,
Mr Sam Collis | Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator
