To think D of E is a massive swindle

What ? £250 ?

Mine is just back from DofE bronze again ( has also declared never again ).

Paid £32 ... school provided tents, rucksacks , lifts in minibus there and back .

She lived off nature valley bars , mug shots and noodles .

My friend's children in different areas paid about the same as mine did .

They wore my walking boots ... and we had basic camping equipment!

Honestly... £250 is ridiculous.

Ps to the person who wrote a post about wanting to complain about DofEers ... I felt for you today when DD described climbing fences , walking through owners fields and air BandB pods and then having the gall to complain she'd turn her leggings on a fence ... SORRY !

All my DC had good experiences on DoE and it was especially good for my Foster Son because he suffered from really low self esteem. He was able to share his dried pasta and passata with a child who had a dodgy chicken sandwich. He took lots of pepperoni sticks, baby bel and breakfast bars and 2 apples. He also didn't need the Compreed plasters so gave them to a girl who had really terrible blisters and he offered to carry extra kit for her as she had to keep stopping, he is very fit as does loads of sports and hiking. I think she had quite new hiking shoes He came back saying he thought the other kids on the course Iiked him. He was surprised at this. He finds it really hard to make friends because of his early life experience. He has kept in touch with 2 of the lads on his course.

Glad you’ve come round - it’s not D of E - it’s your school!

It doesn’t cost anything like that here (not in the UK).

DofE is a personal development programme, students get as much out of it as they are willing to put in. One of the great things about the expedition section is that students end up making decisions for themselves that actually matter to their well-being and comfort. Very rare in their lives nowadays.

If that's their level of knowledge then they shouldn't be running expeditions.

You could change provider. Lots of youth organisations etc. run it & provide the equipment. My daughters did all 3 through school, school even provided walking boots if you didn’t have them. They meal planned but weren’t told what specific food to get.

I don't think it's the DOE that's expensive, it seems like it's the school that are seeing it as a money making exercise.
My DC complete all 3 awards, our school were amazing, all equipment was borrowed from school, we bought the odd things, socks plates, cutlery but absolutely everything else was provided by school.
It's an amazing opportunity

My son planned meals with his group and they all went and bought it themselves. He enjoyed all the different things it involved especially the walks/camping with friends. He has carried on with his volunteer work so I think it was worthwhile for him. It’s what you make of it I suppose.

The great thing about eDofE (where students should record everything they have done for DofE) is that students can log on to it anywhere, and the mobile app is really quite good. It is really a very simple system and any parent who wants to could ask the student to show them their account to see where they are up to.

Seems very expensive. We paid £80 for my daughter to do her bronze with school. That included use of their tents and cooking equipment.
she had most of the equipment already, but I think we bought her a cheap rucksack (although school did say they had a few of them to lend )
plus probably about £15 ish for her food share

she didn’t like doing it with school, and wanted to do her silver with rangers- that was only £60

does she attend a lOcal guide unit ? They often run a bronze level 🥉

We paid 75, that's at a private school. Included travel etc, the chicken katsu pot noodle is about 500 calories, high protein and a quid...a porridge pot, bag of banana chips, sorted...think you've been ripped off.

Who by? School staff?

Anyone with proper expertise in expeditions wouldn't - or shouldn't - be recommending that.

It looks like you can reduce the costs of the camping meals by buying them in bulk eg on Amazon - could your DC organise this with a group at school to reduce the cost?

You’re not wrong re the cost though. I’m an academic and when we do university admissions we completely ignore DoE, as we’re all too aware that it often just means kids have been reasonably privileged in order to access it, and parents have probably spent a lot of money for it too. So by all means do it for the experience, but it won’t gain your child any university admissions benefit at all.

I don’t get the point of the hiking/camping part of it (I admit I know little about the whole scheme). If you want to do hiking/camping then join the Scouts or Guides.
I also see DofE volunteers in charity shops or libraries etc and they always look like little lost sheep who have no clue what they are doing.
What exactly is the point of DofE ?

https://wearencs.com/

Mine did NCS after yr11. Was cheap £100 ish. They went on activity holiday week 1 and did activities at a local university week 2.

National Citizen Service - not bad but not the same as D of E.

What a shame that something that should be a level playing field for kids has turned into a cash cow.

@Anewuser You don't have to complete silver to do gold, but do have to spend longer if doing gold as a "direct entrant". Also have until 25th birthday to complete, if so motivated.

Those meal pouches are foul. DS tried one in advance of his scouts expedition and couldn't eat it. Horribly dehydrating too I bet, I find anything that needs making up with water leaves me really thirsty.

And just to say, my kids aren’t perfect either but if you let them not bother it’ll only get worse!!

I feel your pain. Mine did the bronze, no issue. School suggested continuing to do Silver, which again he did. However, the volunteering part was never signed off. Everything is online now so I didn’t get to see it. School then suggested doing Gold - of course they did, as even more expensive. They did the expedition part, a couple of days on Dartmoor but then decided not to finish it. Due to silver volunteering never being signed off, it looks like he only finished bronze. What an absolute waste of money.