Duke of Edinburgh Award 2024/2025
Dear Parent/Carer
The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) is the world’s leading achievement award for young people, and is highly regarded by universities, colleges and employers. It encourages young people to develop independence, commitment, leadership and teamwork through being involved in a personalised programme of activities. The Academy fully supports the award and recognises its value for developing skills and attributes in young people.
The Award is split into four sections: Volunteering, Physical, Skill, and Expedition. It takes approximately 6 months to complete the Bronze level and a regular commitment to various activities for the duration of the Award is required. There is a range of information available on the D of E website with ideas on social distanced activities: https://www.dofe.org/dofewithadifference/activities
The cost to undertake Duke of Edinburgh is £190. This covers both the practice and qualifying expeditions, the appropriate training, insurance, and campsite fees, as well as the registration fee for DofE. This also includes an additional amount to cover staff costs involved from the expeditions, as well as to maintain equipment that we lend out to students. If the cost is an issue for you, please contact us as soon as possible to discuss any support that we may be able to offer.
Students who are in receipt of the pupil premium may qualify for some financial support with these payments. D of E are currently funding the enrolment fee for those who are in receipt of pupil premium.
Expedition Section
The Expedition section requires participants to plan, train for and complete an unaccompanied, self-reliant 2-day expedition. JC Adventures will be delivering the expedition training and expedition weekend. It is important that all these elements are attended for your child to complete their Award.
- Practice Expedition: Friday 28th March – Saturday 29th March 2025
- Qualifying Expedition: Friday 13th June – Saturday 14th June 2025
Students will be expected to have their own personal equipment; however, group equipment (tents, cooking equipment, maps) will be provided by JC Adventures.
There is a discount available in Go Outdoors, Blacks and Millets for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants. Once registered, students will receive a pack in the post with their discount card in.
If your child wants to take part in the Award, please return the following: by Friday 6th September 2024.
- Deposit of £50 to cover the D of E registration cost and expedition deposit (non-refundable)
- DofE Participant Enrolment Form completed online – https://forms.office.com/e/aQ4ikwRWmX
The remaining cost for the expeditions will be due by Friday 31st January 2025. This can be paid in instalments as follows, or you are welcome to overpay at any time. Please do try to stick to the deadlines where possible, and get in touch if you need any further support:
- £50 – by Tuesday 1st October 2024
- £50 – by Friday 1St November 2024
- £40 – by Friday 31st January 2025
Please take some time to look at the DofE website www.dofe.org and encourage your child to also look at the website as they plan what they might do for the other sections. We will be hosting an information evening before the expedition, so please do come along to hear more about the programme, meet the staff involved in running it, and ask any questions.
Students who have signed up and paid their deposit will be invited to after school meetings in September/October to complete the online registration and decide on what they would like to do for the different sections. Students will have access to an app where they can upload evidence and track their progress with the award. Work on the 3 sections is mostly independent but we will help students where we can to find activities to participate in.
As you may be aware, many schools offer the opportunity for students to purchase D of E merchandise to wear while on their expeditions. We have looked in to ordering directly from Duke of Edinburgh but have found their cost extremely expensive. To keep the cost down we have managed to find a company who is able to produce similar jumpers for a reduced price. The hooded sweatshirts will have both the D of E logo and the HWA logo embroidered on the front, with the students initials below, and will be grey in colour.
The cost of the hooded sweatshirts will be £20.00 and will be payable using the Academy SCOPAY system. Please note these jumpers are completely optional and are by no means part of their ‘essential kit’ required for students to undertake D of E or the expeditions.
If you would like to order your jumper, please complete the online order form https://forms.office.com/e/tBX4X0NVYf and complete the online payment by Monday 16th September 2024.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions.
Yours sincerely
Mrs E Baker & Mr J Littlejohns | D of E Team
