To think D of E is a massive swindle

Schools can now barely afford to put teachers in front of a class. How do you think they can afford to provide all the equipment for those doing DofE? This whole thread is about how expensive it is to kit out ONE child. The school would be paying many thousands of pounds on equipment to loan out to whole cohort of participants.

My children didn't pay to do it. What is the £250 for?
If an outside provider runs it then they cost a fortune.

When I've done it we've been a volunteer staff team, but that's probably in the minority now.

Also, don't you have a local facebook selling sute - all this stuff is sold like a conveyor belt on mine for not very much.

My children didn't pay to do it. What is the £250 for?

If they do it with the scouts then it will be a lot cheaper. I think our group charges £50 for DofE and we help source the equipment as well.

DofE provision seems to be so patchy. When DS1 did his bronze, there were loads of school groups leaving from the same drop-off point and they were all being managed by a third party provider. They seemed pretty sussed but I bet those kids were paying lots more than the £60 we paid! We had a school teacher lead it (organisational skills and communication were not her bag but it all worked out ok in the end) and some other kind teachers volunteered as support staff and assessors on the practice and final expedition weekends. I suppose the money went towards renewing equipment like tents, trangias and fuel (provided by school), subsidising rucksack loan for kids who couldn't afford it, and paying the lead staff member to do weekly after school sessions (I think she's technical support staff and probably not paid for after-hours work).

Our lot were also banned from taking Pot Noodles. I think it's an official DofE ban though god knows, their various rules get interpreted in very different ways by different schools and providers. But we were told they had to make a 'substantial meal' by cooking ingredients together, so the Wayfarer meals were a bit of a grey area. I was personally in favour of them as they didn't weigh much and were quite nice (we sampled a couple) plus didn't need keeping cold. DS's group ended up taking fresh filled pasta (we froze it beforehand to keep it cold) and sausages, which they discovered were too thick to cook through on their meagre supply of trangia fuel....

The wayfarer meals are easier to transport. Also DS has allergies so had to be responsible for his own food.

I don't get why the kids need wayfarer meals?

Sack of pasta, sausage of chorizo, carton of passata and one of beans, done.

If you can't boil water you are a bit fucked really d of e wise.

Good point, well said.

For those small number of schools that do still have teachers willing to volunteer to run the scheme, you should read this thread and really appreciate how lucky your dc are, and you should go to the staff and thank them profusely. (Including e-mailing the HT and telling them what stars their staff are).
Along with all the Volunteers that run this through Scouts, Guides , BB + GB, etc. Heroes every single one of you.

I didn’t pay a penny for dc to do it years ago. We borrowed any stuff they needed, or already had it.
Since it’s been farmed out to private companies they’re just interested in making money from it.
What happens if parents can’t afford to pay , is it for wealthier kids only now?

To any teachers / volunteers on here, you are are bloody marvellous.
I know how much responsibility you have, how little sleep you get and that you’re working really hard for little reward. However, it is people like you have make a lasting impression on young people - thank you 💐

I don’t care about updates / photos / if you have a bbq or order up a Just Eat either or have a luxury item etc etc . Top respect to you all 👏

I've never heard of it costing that much! For context I did D of E at a private school we definitely used bin bags and had pot noodles!!! I can't see why they need the meal sachets?! What if they have a dietary need or allergy?!

I did d of e bronze, it was run by volunteers from the local community and was free. You had to pay a nominal fee to hire a rucksack etc.

no special meals but we had to cook an actual meal, so we did pasta with a tomato sauce.

we did a practice expedition and stayed on a campsite and then the actual expedition we had to wild camp.

i only did the expedition, not the volunteering. So really I didn’t actually do it. And also it was 12 years ago. So times have changed.

Have paid nearly £200 for DS, the money is for the company running the expedition, he’s done a training weekend and still to do the real expedition (bronze).
To be honest, I was annoyed at the cost until I realised that scouts/guides can do it very cheaply as they have adults that volunteer to do this with them. I’m not willing to volunteer so can’t really complain that we have to pay the adults that do this as a job.

Dd has just enjoyed it and got lots out of it. The bronze I mean.

Why are they charging £250? For some sort of all in package of equipment?

We just got a kit list but luckily we had most of it already.

My DD has just done her expedition -Batchelors Pasta and Sauce packs were what she took... and tesco chocolate crepes for breakfast!

(Some of he kids had the dehydrated meals- but they were told to try them before they brought them because if they had nothing else and were disgusting then they'd be hungry!) Pot noodles are not great as they don't contain the required calories. Also take sweets/nuts etc (but make sure nuts are unsalted as otherwise they are dehydrating!)

Ours suggested rubble sacks rather than bin liners - basically as the bin liners shred... not partiularly expensive and they are now in the camp kit (as mine are guides/scouts anyway) to be used again!

Sounds ridiculous, but I agree it's the school/company at fault not the scheme! DS is doing it through Scouting, cost has been minimal and they are expected to plan and buy their OWN meals, having worked out the best combination of energy provided, weight, price and ease of cooking/heating (with some good advice from their leaders, but no more!). They also have to sort out their own kit, make sure they can carry it, route plan etc etc. Being told exactly what to eat/wear/buy/carry by adults seems to take away half the point of it, which is to develop some responsibility, independence and common sense of their own, surely?

DoE here in NW with school £50. The whole point is kids organise it themselves. Ie choose the food themselves (supernoodles, pasta and porridge is what they have selected. Not a sign of anything other than carb in sight😂). If they don't have enough food they won't die and they will have learnt something.

Yanbu. That is madness.

YANBU.

Sounds like the organizers, presumably a for-profit company, are being over-prescriptive to make their own life easier.

It's 1 night at Bronze. Within the rules, the teens should be allowed to make their own mistakes. At that age one rough night will do 90% of people no harm.

Surely that Wayfarer rations stuff doesn't qualify for the "proper" meal anyway, and what they take for breakfast/lunch/snacks is up to them.

Hmm / ouch. No need to buy everything new. If I spent that much they'd be going, no debate or dithering.
My daughter has just done her silver DoE - she loved it. Worth every penny.

Also as a teacher who has spent weeks at a time out with multiple bronze groups, followed by silver then gold, please do not complain to the school about minor issues.

Your child most likely wasn’t ‘lost’ and staff did have a clue where they were… the emergency mobile did go straight to answerphone as the staff were in a remote area 🙄

No the school Facebook page wasn’t regularly updated, because it’s a remote area and probably not the best idea to tell the whole world where we have many groups of unsupervised children.

It is also not the staff’s fault your kid, after several reminders didn’t put their boots inside the tent, or didn’t screw up the fuel bottle properly before putting it in their backpack

Yes the staff did have a bbq on the same campsite as your child, because they also needed to eat and should be allowed nice things when giving up their time for your child, no this is not taunting your child with nice food.

It is SO disheartening as a member of staff who gives up their time free of charge, with nights away from their own family, to get back to school to fire fight complaints off entitled parents. I think this may be why lots Of schools have lost staff willing to help out for free so have to go through an AAP

Also, his school said you had to have a bin bag as a bag liner!

However as many people have said, bin bags come in all types. Tbh as someone who has done a lot of camping (worked at many festivals over the years) I probably would also be more specific. Rubble bag is a good shout.

The bin bag he had in his bag would have been useless if it had rained as it had holes in it just from existing in the bag along with his other stuff. I only included it because they said he needed it. It wasn’t forecast to rain so we didn’t worry about it.

DS just did his DofE bronze. He’s ASD so I had to get extra of the sachet foods so we could go through the process of making one at home first, which had the bonus of him being able to try the food (last thing I wanted was for him to be in a field not wanting to eat what he had)

I know the bag food is expensive but it was surprisingly nice, he ate it all, and it was a good amount of protein as well as carbohydrates. Massive bonus was we bought the one you prepare in the bag itself, so he didn’t need a bowl or to have to clean a pot or whatever.

It cost approximately £180 and the school had a stash of absolutely anything you could want to borrow tbh. We had most items already but they took the schools tents and stove because that was easier.

I’m so glad I encouraged him to do it. He’s come back ready and interested in doing the silver. I wasn’t going to push him beyond bronze so it’s a good result that he wants to do the next step.

The problem with expecting schools to run it is that sometimes staff don't get paid any extra to do it (in some cases they do). Therefore it's easier to get a company to take on the risk of the expeditions (practise and real so 2 for your £250 plus the 2 days training) and use volunteer school staff to supervise.