The Duke of Edinburgh Award

We are proud to offer the Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) at Bronze level here at Weston Secondary School, available to all students in Year 9 and above.

At Bronze level, the Duke of Edinburgh Award consists of four sections:

• Volunteering
• Physical
• Skill
• Expedition

Participants must complete a 3-month programme in each of the first three sections (6 months for one section of their choice) and then a two-day expedition with an overnight camp. A training and practice expedition is carried out before the assessed expedition, usually across June and July.

The school can provide support with completing all sections of the award, or you may wish to choose to carry out your Volunteering, Physical, or Skills sections outside of school – for example, with Scouting organisations, sports clubs or other community facilities.

Participants have recently volunteered at local early years nurseries, youth clubs, Sea Scouts, and animal shelters.

Skills such as learning a musical instrument or computer coding can be verified by staff at the school, while others such as learning to sail, circus skills, and cycle maintenance (just a few examples of recent skills undertaken by our DofE participants) can be signed off by external mentors.

The Physical section can be as simple as going for a run regularly, cycling to school, or participating in any team sport either in school or at a club outside of school.

Our participants who complete the Bronze Award will often say the expedition, while challenging, is their favourite part of DofE.

At Bronze level, we are able to condense the training and practice parts of the expedition into one weekend, usually in June. Participants will then complete their two-day assessed expedition in July. Having hopefully completed their three other sections, successful completion of the expedition is the culmination of the bronze award, and they can be presented with their badges and certificates at the end of year assembly for their year group.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme starts in September each year, where we invite the new Year 9 cohort to sign up and begin their volunteering, physical, and skills sections. Please keep an eye out for a letter inviting your child to sign up early in the Autumn Term.

While we encourage everyone to start the programme in Year 9, students in Years 10 and 11 can participate, as long as this does not clash with exams.

If you want more information regarding the DofE scheme at Weston Secondary School, please email the DofE team. In addition, the DofE website is an excellent resource for general info: https://www.dofe.org/do/parents/.