Duke of Edinburgh bronze award is giving me the rage. Please help me get a grip or share my frustration!!

I don't expect the DofE to have anything to do with university entrance or jobs, but I can see for myself that doing six months' volunteering and all the organising of paperwork for the other skills has made ds grow up quite a bit and THAT will have an effect on his life overall. Yes, it's done on a system that can be 'cheated' but I don't give a shit about that, ds is doing it straight.

Tbh, a lot of kids I knew when I was doing DoE just lied. They got family friends to sign them off as having done things. At least he’s done some.

In the end I never got mine despite completing it all as sadly my leader was badly paralysed in a car accident and the paperwork was lost in all of the change over etc (obviously I don’t mind at all, poor bloke). I still told uni and workplaces that I got it ( I did all of the requirements after all) and nobody has ever even questioned it.

Makes me wonder if it’s actually worth it?

Xenia The Poster is just stating facts. If it is her husbands firm, then that is what it is. I also suspect that on balance it is more Mums that push DC through things like DofE than Dads. That may be undesirable, but it isn't sexist to state a fact.
I agree though that they shouldn't assume MC child.

It is bit unfair and also incredibly selfish. Why isn't it your not your husband's law firm and why isn't it a middle class daddy not a middle class mummy? Sexist on every level there....

All the best can you tell your husband from me that our local youth project is running DofE for some very disadvantaged young people. They are doing it without any prior experience and using borrowed and cobbled together equipment, but they are hiding their own against the much more privileged groups they encounter at outdoor education places. For those young people, DofE genuinely is a massive personal achievement. I really hope that people don't make those sorts of assumptions about them when they mention it to future employers.

My husband always says when he sees D of E on a cv or application to his law firm - ah you had a middle class mummy.

Just to reiterate unis look for supercurricular rather than extra curricular.

My daughter's doing it through school too and I think they may require the whole year to do volunteering ("community service") regardless of whether they opt to do DofE anyway. Unfortunately the DofE meetings clash with one of her many music activities, and it was agreed that they would get the information she needed to her, she was fine to crack on with the other stuff. We realised over last weekend that she'd heard nothing about the expeditions yet; I was going through the school calendar and noted the dates. She's now chased up and been told "that's fine, we'll put you in a group" ... The bit that worries me is noticing that the final expedition leaves the morning after she has an evening outing to see a musical 1 hour from school ...

Come to think of it I must make sure she knows about documenting stuff as that could have easily passed her by!

The school will probably badger them to get stuff filled in too well before the expedition. My twins did bronze and I do think teenagers need a bit of chasing to make sure they are filling in what they have to do. Their school had an evening every so often when they had to stay after school for an hour just to sit there and do stuff, and fill things in and see the teachers. It helped make sure most of those who registered completed it. One of mine said it was the worst experience of his life (the camping) and I am sure the other really enjoyed it. Even though he hated it I suspect he learned a lot - even if that is just I will never camp again anywhere in my life and I love 5* hotels.

Yep- put it on. It shows stickability.

But it makes no difference to University admissions.

Sorry, shouldn't have posted.
Should I stop putting it on? - will be applying for jobs soon after a few years out.

I still put my gold DoE award on my CV. It was commented on at my last job interview (6 yrs ago).

Can't believe how much some of you are paying!

I haven’t read the thread but I just wanted to make sure people know that things like DofE make absolutely no difference at all to University admissions. Unless possibly if the volunteering was in a field directly related to the subject being applied for.

DS did his a couple of years ago, but agree that it's so widespread these days that it's not really worth doing, other than being character-building for the young people.

DS did complete all his sections (and didn't cheat!) and paperwork and gained his award probably a couple of months after completing the final expedition. However, many of his friends were quite lax and were forced into school to complete the paperwork side of things.

At DS's school an external provider did the expeditions part so it turned out to be quite expensive. Probably about £650 in total, with taking up a sport, learning a skill and the kit for the camps.

Mine boarded so the volunteering was a pain. The school arranged a few things for a favoured few and the rest of us struggled to find something. The girls had a trip out in the school minibus to Tesco to get provisions.

DD2 had a nightmare as her group was initially disqualified from the expedition as one girl blew her whistle in jubilation about 50 m from the end of it - with the teachers in view. Not allowed of course and the whole group was DQd. DD and the others successfully argued that they couldn’t get the whistle off the girl or stop her blowing it as it was hung round her neck! Total nightmare and I was furious when I heard the effort DD had made to get reinstated. She didn’t blow the whistle. She didn’t know the girl was going to blow the whistle. The staff saw who blew the whistle. If you have to deal with this sort of crap, it’s really not worth it.

Sounds about normal to me.
Ds did his bronze and silver through Scouts and enjoyed it. Didn't cost a penny. I was a bit disappointed he couldn't be arsed to do his Gold though.

My DD is about to do her practice Bronze for her's through school - can't remember how much we paid but it wasn't too bad and she's just going to use her brother's stuff and luckily fits in his old boots. She is about as enthusiastic as my teapot though. The only thing she's really done is about 5 months of volunteering with Barnardos ( every Sunday afternoon) and she's going to do a bit of swimming. She murmured something about an instrument at school for skill - God knows what!

You do feel you have to keep chivvying them along and her school haven't really been sending a lot of info out about it. I remember from last time you have to get some of that dried food - we got some from Decathlon. Will have to get a list from the teacher who is supposed to be coordinating this!

When DD1 did Bronze the school insisted they had finished 2 sections and at least started on the third before they allowed them on the final expedition. I think that was to motivate them to do it, and to ensure that people didn't sign up purely for the expedition with no intention of doing the other stuff.

He sounds like he's doing really well (on the way to completing 3 sections albeit not documented). So don't really understand your rage. I have a DC who is basically at the same stage at yours, getting him motivated is a huge struggle, but it's his job to sort himself out. I've reminded him he has until 25 to finish it, but if he wants to keep doing it with his friends, he needs to do a bit more quickly than that. Taking a step back and not micromanaging (and potentially letting them fail) is surely one of the learnings from the DofE.

oh, and from the other side - I used to be a Brownie leader and had loads of girls in to help as part of their DofE. Pretty much all of them I retro-filled in their weekly logs when they got to the end of the 3/6 months - so I think that bit is pretty common!

I think DoE is worth doing purely for the expeditions. Both my DCs found them quite tough but different from anything else they had done, so memorable experiences. The rest is less valuable and loads of people cheat on the volunteering etc, which really shocked me at first.

Unis really don’t care about any of this stuff but schools routinely tell their pupils that all this stuff matters, so they get lots of mixed messages.

pain in the arse, obvs. A passion in the arse would be a very different thing

Not getting around to writing things up is completely normal. He'll do it at some point, probably when he realises his friends are finished and he isn't. Try and help him pick a skill he actually wants to do. He can start it now.

And even if it doesn't feel like the life changing experience you hoped for, he will still be learning stuff that isn't on the GCSE curriculum. Like that some things take protracted effort, and that if you don't keep on top of paperwork it becomes a passion in the arse!

Oxbridge, Medics and Vets get interviewed and teachers and social workers etc

Ihaven'tstopped, I could have written your posts myself and feel EXACTLY the same as you about my DD.
She is doing a dance class for her physical...but only because another school friend is doing it. She is volunteering in the school's junior school...but only because other school friends are doing it too. She's having singing lessons for her skill...but only because I signed her up for them. Nothing has been documented at all.
We spent a fortune on her expedition equipment, dragging her round the shops,making food suggestions etc - nothing has been initiated by her.
To be fair, her trial expedition was over the heatwave weekend just after Easter and she did well, but the total lack of drive and enthusiasm is driving me insane! I'm hoping it's a 14 year old lack of maturity thing....otherwise the next 2 years is going to be hell!!