Dropping out of DoE award

DS state school charges £250 per pupil for Gold ( a bit less for silver and bronze). Documentation says it is non-refundable. School provide trangias and maps but we have to provide rucksack first aid kit, compass, tent, cooking fuel, pay campsite fees on top. There are a very few tents and rucksacks to borrow for those that are struggling, but none left when we asked. Parents also have to volunteer to organise the paperwork for each group. There is no transport provided to drop off and pick up points, that is all down to parents to share with each other and pay petrol costs themselves... which can mean a 250 mile round trip. Plus on expedition, often parents have extra petrol costs to drive up there for a day (some pay accommodation overnight) and meet the group at checkpoints with water. I think the £250 we pay to school must go on the registration fee to D of E, and training, petrol and expenses for assessors (volunteers themselves). Also the six weeks or so of training meeting and first aid/navigation each group does before the first practice. I have been shocked by the cost of D of E overall. With fees to school, outdoor gear, tent, boots (feet keep growing!), food for expeditions, petrol and fees for sports and activities, it must have come to around £2,000. Not a huge sum for what they get out of it, but has been a big drain to find the £. Hope you get a refund or can defer, OP.

I would suspect that it wouldn't be easily refundable on the grounds that it would otherwise give the pupils an opt-out.

Considering she has done nothing towards her DoE I don't really see how "the commitment it takes is too much pressure."

Most kids are already doing activities that qualify (swimming, dance, music,football, helping at school clubs) and they just get an adult to sign itoff . If she really isn't doing any extra activities outside school, she should easily be able to find opportunities.

Yeur DD should continue with DoE

It will do her good to be in regular activities with her dad being so poorly.

She needs to step up and ask rtereeacher for information and sort out what she needs to do. Thas's partly the point of the pogramme, to equip young people with life skills.

I don't think you can expect any money back personally

Just do the award!! It's not a big deal, the expedition is easy.

But if the school have paid for the trip why would you expect to get the money back?

Have you asked if she can defer until next year .

If your child is too ill to go on the trip you need to involve the GP. If the trip is paid for and they can't give the place to someone else then what should they do except claim on the insurance? Or you lose the money.

Did you ask to read the Ts and Cs before you signed up or paid anything ? If your daughter is known to your GP it will take him minimal time to knock up a letter which obviously he will charge you for so no problem to the NHS .

How is it madness? The trip is paid for. If you want to claim on insurance they are bound to want evidence.

Why is it madness , you wouldn’t just be able to call up holiday insurance and expect them to take your word that you’ve broken your leg etc they would want proof , it’s no different .

My cadets pay about £10 for an expedition.I should probably hire myself out as an expedition assessor, by the sounds of it they make a fortune!

Remember that the activities do not have to be done all at once, you can do one at a time, and it is only 1 hour a week per activity.

DD1's school used to be very cheap for DofE . And then the teacher who ran it left and they have had to start using an external expedition company. It was either that or stop doing DofE at all. So we're now paying £330 for her Silver Expedition and I'm sure there will be no refunds, because they've already entered a contract with the expedition provider.

So to all those parents whose schools are offereing DofE very cheaply, it's probably because teachers are going above and beyond to run it on a voluntary basis. Be very nice to them!

Wow! Our school charged £80 for the expedition.it night have been £80 for each of the practice and actual expeditions, but even then, a long way off £250.

This is a school that completely farmed the expedition out to one of the companies that supplies the equipment and training. The kids took public transport to the expedition base, a train and bus, under their own steam.

I am coordinating it for the 1st time this year. Because of non-school work I do at weekends (semi-pro music) I do not have the time or expertise to organise the expeditions. The school buys in all the training, suipervision and kit from a 3rd party. We have charged £170 this year which is £20 plus a bit of postage for the logbook/website and the rest goes to the external provider. I have had moans from parents that it is cheaper elsewhere, but when I ask them to come in and run it because I cannot do it all myself, they mysteriously shut up!

I had a limited number of places so they had to apply by letter or email stating an outline of what they proposed to do for physical, skills and volunteering. They started in October and some of them have completed 2 of the 3-month activities already.

The first £25 was non-refundable as I ordered logbooks and paid a deposit based on them. However, if people drop out and actually inform me, I can remove them from the external provider's books and we should not be charged for training or the expeditions. It may be worth checking that with the school.

There are a number of students higher up the school who still have parts to complete to get their bronze award. I have emailed them all today to encourage them to finish it off. However, they do have until their 25th birthday, so there is no mad rush.

EauDeChlorine I wonder if you DD goes to similar school to our DS?
I ask because we paid a similar amount to you (our total might even have been slightly more...). I was totally shocked when I discovered that DN was only paying a fraction of that amount to do her DofE Bronze. The difference in cost was due to the fact that DS's school outsourced the running of the expeditions (and they did three in total including the final assessment one rather than two). Oh and they went quite far afield to do them (south coast) rather than a few miles down the road!

DD is doing D of E through school for a similar cost. School contracts out to an external company who are professional outdoor tutors etc. Check your paperwork. For us it was emphasised that once you signed up you were fully committed for the cost and you HAD to attend the preplanned training days or you'd be disqualified. They said this several times and it was in capitals on the application form.

If they won't refund (and it sounds as if they have contracted it out) could she still do the expedition, which is overnight then do the other parts in her own time, or not bother. The only limit seems to be to complete by 25th birthday.

At £250 it is hardly available to all and surely that goes against the spirit of D of E? Obviously with a low take up, that's exactly what happened!

However, mine did Bronze in Y10. So many do it now, it has little value except to the young person themselves. 50 years ago it was seen as exceptional, now it isn't.