DofE v CCF

Ds is nearing the end of his Bronze DoE. It's not been too time consuming: the only thing "extra" has been the volunteering he's had to do (not sure how many hours - think it was 10 hours). The Skills and Physical elements he's been able to integrate into the existing (two) sports he follows.

As he's doing it through the school, he's had a few after school sessions, going through map reading and preparations for their expeditions.

There was one practice walk on a Saturday and then 2x2 day expedition trips (the first the practice one for the assessed one). Both of those involved a Friday out of school, going into Saturday meant dh and I had a "free" night The other group did their assessed expedition midweek so got two days out of school

My DS1 is an Army Cadet and doing DofE with them, so won't she be able to do DofE even if she opts for CCF?

Well if it were me I'd go for the Community Service instead of CCF or DofE!
Sorry, not helpful! Have you already had the presentation? If she's not in the slightest but outdoorsy then neither is great.
My DD is in the year below so haven't got to this point yet, but from what I remember from when I was there, all sections of CCF had a number of activities that they all did (not at the same one of course). They all had to do the horrible assault course, and other pursuits such as canoeing etc. If your DD is not into that then she can't acois it regardless of the section. If she likes that stuff then great, she should pick the section that she finds most interesting I guess.

I think DofE could be very time consuming I guess it depends on what activities a peson already does and how many extra things need to be done.

Has anyone complained about them being forced to do something which takes place solely outside school hours?

How odd. Dc school can opt for both and ccf counts as service/physical element of D of E. If she has hobbies she does anyway for skill and volunteering, it really needn't be that time consuming. Alternatively could she do D of E externally.

My dd chose CCF over DofE, and chose army which she - amazingly ! - really enjoyed. The time commitment was less, she only did one summer camp, but overall it was a fantastic experience - she ended up as Lance Corp DD ....