Friends teen asking me to sign off something she hasn't done - help.

[VenusWineTrap]

My very best friend's teenage daughter is doing an award through school involving a skills section that can be achieved in lots of different ways. She has chosen cooking and has asked me to sign off her attempts. My problem is she isn't bothering! We are weeks and weeks in and she's only cooked once & I know its only a matter of time before I'm asked to sign it off for her. Do I refuse and see her possibly fail the award or do I (for the sake of my friend) sign off and let it go?

Tell her, and her mum, now that you're not going to sign off on this unless she does it. That way she still has time to complete everything.

Say to her now that you won't be able to sign it off if you don't see evidence that she's done whatever she has to do. (Ie give her some warning that she may fail, plus the opportunity to get her arse in gear).
Do you have some kind of role (eg home economics teacher) that qualified you to sign off what she's done? In which case you could say it's more than your reputation's worth to sign off something you know hasn't been done?

Before warning her that you won't be able to sign off if you haven't seen the evidence, what about asking her when she is expecting to have the evidence to show her. You want to make sure that you will be available, not on hols etc.

I bit of gentle reminder in this way may be enough to remind her to get on with it. hTh

Thanks for your comments, its for herDuke of Edinburgh bronze award and the sections are coming to an end, the assessment weekend is complete, she has said she is doing a zumba class for her physical (not sure who's signing that off) and hasn't done that either and part of me thinks she will get these sections signed off andits pure cheating :-( No way will I be talked into this if she does her silver but I'm fearing its too late to be threatening not to sign off now. Feel really uneasy about it all.

Sounds like she deserves to fail. What sort of lesson are you teaching her if you sign it off? Could you at least get her to do a reasonable amount of baking in none time left so it's less false when you sign it. She could get quite a bit done in a weekend.

I don't think there's any time limit on completing the award is there? I would do as others have suggested and ask her about when she's going to be doing the cooking, and warn her that you won't be able to sign it off until it's actually done. If that means she gets the award later than her friends, so be it.

Please don't. My daughter is working really hard for her Bronze DofE spending at least 4-5hrs a week on the skills, volunteering and physical sections. It is really unfair if other people are cheating.

I second 4am. My ds worked really hard for their awards, and ds1 in particular struggled with the sport section. But he went every week and did it.

If children cheat at this, it devalues the whole award.

I think there's quite a long time limit for completing your DofE, so she can still fit in her 12 weeks of cooking. Don't sign her off unless she's actually done it though.

Won't she have to provide photos of what she has done?

Of course you can't sign it. That's not helping her in the long term anyway.

I'm sure some of my friends lied when we did ASDAN (doing the bronze award was compulsory at my school) but what's the point - I'm glad nobody let me skive off the work.

You really shouldn't feel guilty - you agreed to sign off HER WORK and she hasn't done it so how can you sign it? Not your problem.