Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award 24/25
After a fantastic cohort of students took part in the Bronze Award last year, it comes with much excitement, that we are now looking ahead to the Silver Award taking place this year.
My child took part in the Award last year,
If your child took part in the Bronze Award last year and they would like to continue onto Silver then that is fantastic, I know you haven’t heard of details surrounding the Awards evening to celebrate last year’s success. The delay here is me waiting for the last few students to finish their sections so I can sign them off. Once this has been completed we will hold our Awards evening, the second part of which will be an introduction to the Silver Award.
My child did not take part in the Award last year,
Your child can still complete the Silver Award even if they did not do the Bronze Award last year. The Award will usually take 6 months to complete, if you are jumping straight on at Silver, then one of your sections will be extended, therefore taking you a year to complete.
What is the Duke of Edinburgh Award?
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 Silver award is open to all Year 10 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. This year for the Silver Award we will run things differently compared to Bronze last year. This time around students will go on two separate 3 day expeditions. The first of which will take place in the Ashdown Forest, the second of which we will hold in the South Downs. Expeditions will run over three days and two nights with each night being hosted by a different campsite.
The DofE is a flexible program that can be tailored to suit individual interests and abilities.
What are the Costs?
The costs to join and complete this year’s Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award is £370.
A significant increase from last year I know but here is how we come to that price. 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 £171 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 three days and two nights 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. With the £28 enrollment fee, and the two lots of £171, this takes us to that figure of £370.
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 let you know when the Awards evening will be for last year’s Bronze Cohort. We will invite everyone who is interested in the Silver Award this year as well, so that they can experience the celebration and gain confidence ahead of the Silver Award. This evening will also give 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.
If you are interested 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. It may take a few days in between filling out the Google Form and being able to make payment on ScoPay.
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 seeing you all soon,
Mr Sam Collis | Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator
