Here at Perryfields we are excited to be able to offer the opportunity to all our students, from Year 9 and up, to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The DofE can provide students with the chance to develop new and existing skills, strengthen friendships and cooperation and open them to new experiences on the expedition where they can visit a variety of rural landscapes. As an adaptable award, the DofE is open to students of all backgrounds and capabilities.

“A life-changing experience. A fun time with friends. An opportunity to discover new interests and talents. A tool to develop essential skills for life and work. A recognised mark of achievement; respected by employers.”
(Duke of Edinburgh website)

The DofE award is a national award, open to young people aged between 14 and 24 years old. It involves the completion of 4 key sections, which are as follows:

• Volunteering – where students can take action and make a difference in things such as coaching, to helping with childcare, to starting a charitable campaign etc.
• Skills – a diverse section where students can learn a new skill (eg. Cookery, music etc.), or develop and further and existing one.
• Physical – a chance for students to focus on their health and fitness, existing sports clubs fit the bill perfectly here, or there are a range of other, easily accessible options out there.
• Expedition – with a team of friends, students will plan their aim, choose their routes and do some training to make sure they’re prepared — then spend time away, camping and exploring to complete this section.

At Perryfields we offer both the Bronze and Silver levels of the award. The Bronze award is open to our Year 9s and consists of 3 months’ worth of activity (one hour per week) for all of the volunteering, skills and physical sections, and then the students pick one of these sections to do a further 3 months making 6 in total. The students then undertake an expedition in groups with their fellow students lasting 2 days and one night. Previous locations used for this expedition have included Kinver and the Shropshire Hills.

The Silver award is open to students to enrol in year 10, provided they have completed the Bronze section of their Award. This consists of the same sections as Bronze, but runs for 6 months of the volunteering section and then for the skills and physical sections one will also last 6 months and the other 3; this is at the choice of the student. The expedition for the Silver Award is also longer, lasting 3 das and 2 nights in total, with previous locations for this including the Shropshire Hills and the Peak District.

For more information on the DofE Award, please visit: www.dofe.org/do/what/

Taking part in the Award will give students skills, confidence and an edge over others when applying for college, university or a job. Beyond their academic achievements, universities want to see evidence of so called ‘soft skills’ that you have developed through extra-curricular activities, such as communication, commitment, leadership and teamwork. The DofE Award is a fantastic way to demonstrate and evidence these skills in practice.

The DofE can provide many personal benefits too such as: becoming more confident independent; getting healthier and happier; making lasting friendships; having amazing new experiences; finding new talents and passions; having fun; making memories. As students are able to tailor their awards to their needs there are opportunities for all sorts of additional benefits. Participants to the award also receive a DofE card, which provides a discount at some of the major retailing outfits supplying outdoor products (eg. Go Outdoors and Millets)