Bronze Expedition, D of E

The requirement for doing a practice expedition has been removed for the Bronze Award - they are still required to do training, but can now go straight for the exped. The link added by Kite above spells it out.

DD is doing bronze this year. She has had a training weekend, map reading, putting tents up, emergency procedures etc. In two weeks she has the practice expedition and then in a couple more weeks the qualifying expedition.

My DS did his expedition in March. No practise walk ,no idea why but we just put it down to Covid issues/delays. They were already doing it a year later than they were supposed to because of Covid and the expedition had to be squeezed in so that it happened just after GCSE mocks had finished to get it done before the final push towards the actual GCSE exams.

They walked from school to a Scout camp on a Friday evening which was a two hour walk with full kit including all the camping equipment/tents which were shared out between them.

They then walked all day Sat and Sun too.

My friend's son at a different school did get to do his the year before but they weren't allowed to camp so went home after each day of hiking. They did do a practise walk though.

Mine has just done a bronze practice expedition, 6 hours walking over two days including overnight camp. The real thing is end of the month. They did very little in the way of giving parents information though! I only got the packing list the week of, and nobody checked the kit. It sounds like there was a lot of staff on the trip though so they probably had a lot of spares. They are allowed to take phones incase they get lost.

My DD has just done her practise walk this weekend. 2 days of walking, 6 hours each day. They had a DofE leader walk with them the first day but it was just her group today.
They had a full day of training at school a couple of weeks ago where they learned about map reading, putting up tents and cooking. The leaders also talked about kit.
Has your DD not had any of the background info or downloaded the app?

DofE Expedition

Yes, they absolutely should do a practice expedition, but, as pps have said, they should have been adequately prepared before doing the practice expedition.

The school my dc are at Dundee do a practice which I find very strange. Dc1 does it through Scouting instead, doing silver and they are not allowed on expedition without completing a navigation training weekend then they do the practice and are only permitted to complete the qualifier if the instructors think they are ready.

However, I think they do it a little more "properly" than school.

Our son is doing this with scouts he had. A training weekend this weekend and a practice walk next Saturday.

Ours did a practice, BUT... They really need to do a lot more prep than that. A lot of people had severe blisters, lots of pain, etc afterward and had time off school- they simply hadn't bothered to prepare and in some cases were either ill-equipped or had failed to break in new boots, etc. Please make sure they don't do it without regular build-up

Are you sure they don't have a training session beforehand? It is really not that strenuous walking although I thought dd camped overnight for her Bronze. They may also be given a tracker so the staff can check who is where in case they stray off course

It’s not that strenuous typically and is just a laugh to be honest- I wouldn’t worry… it’s a mini adventure, they probably will get lost, my dd did. If it’s organised via school I think they typically do hold a practise walk, your dd could ask the nominated teacher.

My memory is that DD had to do a practice walk. You couldn't do the real thing without a practice.