Duke of Edinburgh Awards

[Afternooninthepark]

Does anyone have any experience?
Ds (15) has been offered to participate in the scheme through his school. There was a lot of interest and he has been luck to have been offered a place.
He has struggled in secondary school as he has anxiety and we have had some school refusal over the years (he is getting much better). He is now becoming quite confident within himself and will do things on his own and is happy to take part.
I know very little about the scheme but am hoping it will give him more confidence in himself. Although he is more than capable with his studies he just despises school and doesn’t do as well as he should (I and the school have tried everything to encourage him). He is much more of a practical person and loves to make things, so I am hoping this will give him more interests and opportunities.
Has anyone had any experience of the DofE awards? Are they any good/worth pursuing?

My DH is a DofE assessor/leader as part of running a cadet detachment and my eldest is doing DofE at school.

You get out of it what you put in to some extent. What is he opting to do?

GunsAndShips we don’t know yet. No other info has been given by the school other than do you want to apply? Had an email from the school to say there will be an online meeting for parents after half term.

The Duke of Edinburgh website is very comprehensive. The school should be set up to provide equipment for the hiking/camping element but the volunteering, physical and skill side of the award is his opportunity to find something challenging and enjoyable. Have a look at the website with him.

I got my Gold Award and it was a brilliant programme to built up independence away from an over protective parent.

He will need to put himself in new situations with different people and organise them for himself.

Doing the physical activity for Silver pushed me to pick up the phone and enquire about adult swimming lessons and learn to swim 25m. (Pre-internet). For 15yo me, that was a big deal. For the Gold Award, I earned the ASA silver award and could swim a mile. That experience made it much easier to join and learn other things into adulthood.

The expeditions were definitely lessons in resilience

I did the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards back in the 1990s when #I was a teenager. It was great, but challenging, and I got to do lots of activities I wouldn't have done otherwise, and went on lots of camping trips to some beautiful areas. If he's a fan of the great outdoors he'll probably enjoy it. I also found it was good to talk about in university and job interviews.

Thanks all. I’ve just had a look on their YouTube channel and it does look like something he would enjoy. He loves being outdoors and is very practical too.

Following as my son has also just brought the letter home and wants to sign up. I had a quick look at the website at suggested activities but am a bit confused as to how you evidence some of them. We live in a fairly rural area with not much access to clubs, etc he could join to be able to get evidence of his work. Hopefully they will explain more once he's registered.

I did DofE back in the 90s as well. I really enjoyed it - I grew up somewhere quite rough and definitely not rural, so I'd never done walks like that or camped etc. Great experience! My family couldn't afford for me to have any hobbies/extra curricular that cost money but the DofE scheme was cheap, overall.

DS completed his Gold award just before lockdown. He really enjoyed it- particularly the expeditions. He was a swimmer so did swimming for his physical part and was a volunteer at Parkrun for the volunteering section which he really enjoyed (though I’m not sure if Parkrun is on just now?). He wasn’t keen on the report writing for each section though and at his school quite a lot of pupils fall down on that part and don’t get the award- we had to keep on his back to get them done.