The Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Longdendale High School are very pleased to offer our students the opportunity to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award programme.

The DofE is a personal development programme for 14- to 24 year olds. It offers a chance for young people to broaden their horizons, discover new interests and talents, have fun with friends, develop essential skills for their future and achieve an internationally renowned award.

The award is designed to be enjoyable whilst learning a wealth of new skills, such as self-reliance, teamwork and leadership. The award also helps participants to push themselves physically, help others and explore new things.

The benefits of achieving an award at any level are endless. A DofE Award can give students the edge when they apply for college, university or a job. More information on the DofE can be found via the DofE website

Longdendale High School offers the DofE Award at two levels; Bronze and Silver.

Each level of the award has four sections to complete; Volunteering, Physical, Skill and Expedition. Activities for each DofE section take a minimum of one hour per week over a set period of time (see timescales), so that they can be fitted around participants’ studies and life outside school.

Volunteering

This section is about giving up your time to help people, the community, the environment or animals. The intention is that you will do something useful without getting paid. The document below shows some ideas for the volunteering section.

Programme ideas - volunteering

PHYSICAL

Any physical activity including sport, dance or fitness activity can be used towards your physical section. Not only will this section help improve a young person’s fitness but it is also good preparation for the expedition. Ideas for the physical section are shown in the document below.

Programme ideas - physical

SKILL

For this section, students need to choose a skill that will allow them to demonstrate that they have learnt or improved their knowledge of their chosen skill. Students just need to be careful when choosing their skill that it is not a physical activity as this would count towards the physical section. The document below shows some ideas for the skill section.

Programme ideas - skill

Expedition

This is often the highlight of a participants DofE Award. The expedition is a memorable, challenging but rewarding experience. For this section, participants will need to plan, train for and complete an unaccompanied expedition with an agreed aim.

At Bronze level this is 2 days and 1 night camping and at Silver it is 3 days and 2 nights camping. At Silver students will also need to complete a practice expedition of the same length and also do a final presentation to complete this section.

It will usually take you at least 6 months/26 weeks to complete your Bronze programme.

  • Volunteering section: 3 months/13 weeks

  • Physical section: 3 months/13 weeks

  • Skills section: 3 months/13 weeks

  • 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.

It will take you at least 6 months/26 weeks for Silver if you’ve already achieved your Bronze, or 12 months if you’ve jumped straight into Silver.

  • Volunteering section: 6 months/26 weeks

  • Physical and Skills sections: One section for 6 months/26 weeks and the other section for 3 months/13 weeks

  • 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.

Once participants are registered on to an award, an edofe account will be created for them. This is where every aspect of their award is monitored by their DofE Leader. Once a participant has decided what they are doing for each section, they fill in the detail in the relevant section of their eDofE account. This is then submitted to their leader who checks that it meets DofE criteria and then will either approve or query it. Once approved the participant can then start the section activity. Evidence of taking part in section activities is regularly uploaded by the participant and checked/approved by their leader.

Frequently asked questions about eDofE

Once a section has been completed the participant will need to ask their section assessor to complete an assessor report. This is done through the DofE website via the Assessor’s Portal: DofE Assessor Report

Each participant has a unique participant ID number. The participant should supply their Assessor with their ID number and the level which they are doing (Bronze or Silver). The Assessor follows the instruction via the portal and their completed report will appear in the participants eDofE account.

Code of Conduct

DofE Enrolment Form

DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Bronze
DofE Silver
DofE Silver
DofE Silver