Duke of Edinburgh

At Studley High School, we are proud to offer the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver Awards to our students. An inherent part of the Studley DNA is developing students as a whole and prepare them for life beyond the classroom. DofE is a great opportunity to support students in this. It provides lots of opportunities for new experiences where they can develop lifelong skills, memories and interests that will benefit them in the future.  

The DofE scheme promotes confidence, teamwork, resilience, commitment and communication; skills which are particularly appealing to colleges, sixth forms, universities, apprenticeships and employers. DofE also allows students to make a difference to other people’s lives, give back to their community, become fitter and healthier, as well as enhancing mental health and wellbeing.  

There are four main sections that make up the Bronze and Silver Awards: Physical, Skill, Volunteering and Expedition. 

Bronze Award Timescales 

– Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections: One section for 6 months and the other sections for 3 months
– Expedition section: 2 days/1night

Silver Award Timescales 

– Volunteering section: 6 months
– Physical and Skills sections: One section for 6 months and the other section for 3 months
– Expedition section: 3 days/2 nights

Recruitment and the Start of the Process 

• The Bronze DofE Award is advertised to students and their parents at the end of year 8 so they can start it at the beginning of year 9. 
• The Silver DofE Award is advertised to year 9 students and their parents at the end of year 9 so they can start it at the beginning of year 10. 
• Pupil premium students are offered a discount. 

Physical, Skill and Volunteering Sections 

• Physical section activity ideas 
• Skill section activity ideas
• Volunteering section activity ideas
• Students attend regular lunchtime meetings for support with these sections. 
• In the September that students start their award, students are given their login for eDofE. Students input their personal details which triggers a welcome pack to be sent to their home address. This includes lots of helpful information as well as their blank assessor reports for each section. 
• Students are encouraged to decide on their activities for their physical, skill and volunteering sections, source assessors and input all the relevant details into eDofE for initial approval. 
• These sections are just as important as the expedition section and involve a weekly time commitment of one hour per week per activity. 
• For each activity, students have an assessor. Assessors cannot be family members. For instance, if a student chose football as their physical section activity, their assessor would most likely be their coach. It is important students ask permission first and do not just assume they would be comfortable with being their assessor. 
• If students are completing an activity at home, such as running, cooking or litter picking, students are required to collate evidence of their activity. Evidence would include photos of their full bin bags after their hour of litter picking, activity logs on fitness apps, photos of dishes cooked, diary entries of what they did and learned. They can ask a teacher at school to be their assessor, most likely their form tutor. Their assessor can then look at the evidence and sign off the relevant section. 
• In order to complete a section, students need to submit an assessor report via their eDofE account. They have blank assessor reports for each section in their welcome pack. Once they have got their assessor to complete it, the easiest way to upload it, is to take photograph of it and upload it via the eDofE app. Students should click on the relevant section, then ‘manage evidence’ to be able to do this. Alternatively, assessors can complete an online version which gets sent straight to eDofE via the following link: https://www.dofe.org/assessor/ .  
• If students require additional physical copies of blank assessor reports, they can be sourced from Miss Haycock. 

 Expedition Section 

• Venture Outdoors is the AAP that Studley High School use to support with the expedition section, in conjunction with Studley High School staff. 
• Students’ complete afterschool and Saturday sessions at school to train for their expedition and plan their routes. 
• Training includes things such as first aid, map and compass skills, campcraft, cooking as well as countryside and highway safety codes. 
• Students complete a practice expedition, normally during the Autumn Term to help them refine their expedition skills. They then complete the qualifying expedition, which is normally during the Spring Term. 
• Students are in groups, no larger than seven for their expedition. 
• Parents are communicated with regularly via letters home, emails and text messages to provide additional information and important dates. 

Provided Kit 

• Camping stove, pans and fuel 
• Tent
• Rucksack
• Maps and compasses 

We have a small number of rucksacks, sleeping bags and sleeping mats that can be provided on a first come, first serve basis. 

All DofE queries should be directed to the DofE Coordinator, Miss Haycock: [email protected].