Duke of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh Award programme is designed to help equip young people with the skills to succeed in life: it enriches the lives of all those taking part by developing the mind, body and soul in an environment of social interaction and team working.

King’s is one of the largest Directly Licensed DofE Centres in the country. Increasing numbers of King’s pupils are undertaking the awards as a way of enriching their CVs and university application forms, as well as gaining a huge range of experiences and life skills, whilst having fun and making a contribution to their wider community.

Each year, around 20 of our students achieve Gold, 50-60 achieve Silver and around 100 -120 achieve Bronze Awards.

Our achievements!

Over the last 5 years, more than 1,200 awards have been started by King’s pupils and they have clocked up in excess of 21,000 hours of voluntary work helping other people, the community, the environment, charities, animals or coaching and teaching. They have also learnt an array of skills including cooking, astronomy, keeping livestock, photography, first aid, car mechanics and many more.

In 2014, King’s Headmaster was invited to St James’ palace and presented with a certificate in recognition that King’s was the first DofE Centre in the country to achieve 100 award completions in one year.

Timescales

Bronze

It will usually take you at least 6 months to complete your Bronze programme.

Volunteering section: 3 months
Physical section: 3 months
Skills section: 3 months
Expedition section: 2 days/1 night

You also have to spend an extra three months on one of the Volunteering, Physical or Skills sections. It’s your choice which one and, though you can change your mind later, you should decide which section you want to do for longer at the beginning. Knowing how long you’re going to do it for will help you to choose your activity and set your goals for each section.

Silver

It will take you at least 6 months for Silver if you’ve already achieved your Bronze, or 12 months if you’ve jumped straight into Silver.

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

If you didn’t do Bronze, you must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections.

Gold

For Gold, you’ll need to do your programme for at least 12 months if you’ve achieved your Silver Award, or 18 months if you’ve started at Gold level without doing your Silver – even if you’ve done Bronze. The big difference at Gold is you’ll also do a Residential section.

staying away from home for five days and four nights doing a shared activity with people you don’t know.
Volunteering section: 12 months
Physical and Skills sections: One section for 12 months and the other section for 6 months
Expedition section: 4 days/3 nights
Residential section: Undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days and 4 nights.

If you didn’t do Silver, you must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Physical or Skills sections.

Hear from a DofE Ambassador

Year 13 student Julian O'Neil is a DofE Ambassador undertaking his Gold Award:

"Before the Summer holidays, eight Year 10 pupils completed their Silver Award along with myself and a friend completing our Gold Award. We completed our qualifying expedition by canoeing in Hereford through the River Wye.

"Being rafted with another canoe to ensure stability and to increase teamwork in the DofE spirit, I was confident that I was not going to capsize during the six hours that I was going to be out on the river on the first day. Although, two Year 10 pupils managed to do just that, TWICE, once only 30 seconds into the expedition, on the same day! At least we couldn't get lost, there being only one route down the river.

"Every time we came up to rapids, nerves would set in convincing me that I would capsize. It wasn’t until the second day that I began to gain confidence and excitement when going through the rapids.

"The second day was the longest at 7 ½ hours. Toilet and lunch spots were very hard to come by as we ended up having to stop and eat lunch consisting of granola bars, crackers and lots of sweets on an embankment that was covered in sheep and bird faeces with the only option of doing a wild wee in the bushes. But trust me, it was worth it when we arrived at the Rowing Club an hour and a half later to a warm hot shower.

"The dehydrated firepot food I had was reasonably good for the wet and windy conditions we were facing (so, who would have thought that I would have ended up with sunburn?). However, most of the Year 10s chose to live exclusively off Pot Noodles. The final day was especially exhausting, with an excessive amount of ‘No Trespassing’ signs along the embankments on the final leg of our route. Nevertheless, this did not catch our attention until we docked on an embankment only for an unimpressed Welsh farmer to pull up his van and warn us of the signs, so we had to leave. Plan B for lunch was rafting all five of our canoes together and sharing bourbons, which wasn't too bad after all.

"I can’t speak for anyone else, but being on a canoe, I found it wasn't as exhausting as my Bronze Award, which I completed on my Bike. I was able to enjoy the spectacular view of the natural surroundings of Hereford at a leisurely pace. It was a fantastic experience that I will look back on fondly. We all made new friends, despite some of us not knowing each other initially, and we ended the 3 days with a wonderful trip to KFC from Mr. Street on the way home!"

The DofE awards are hard-earned and demand dedication, determination and a strong social conscience. They are also masses of fun and hugely inspiring for young people. The scheme complements perfectly life at King’s and supports our aims to challenge our pupils to aspire, work hard and achieve great things and raise ambitious, confident and well-rounded individuals who play a full role in the wider community.”

Paul Bartle, in charge of the DofE Scheme at King'S

Annual Volunteering Fair

We run an annual volunteering fair in November for all of our lower sixth students plus pupils from Year 10 and 11 who are interested in volunteering opportunities with local charities and organisations. For more information please email: mail@kingsmac.co.uk.

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