Bronze DofE £250 through school

[Allgoodfun]

DC has brought home the information to do bronze DofE, which school have offered for many years. However this year the price has suddenly rocketed from roughly £30 to £250. On top of that would be all the kit needed for the expedition - waterproofs, boots, sleeping bag etc.
Firstly, is this the normal cost now?
Secondly and more importantly to me, AIBU to think it's ruining the point of the DofE, instead of being open to everyone and so worth having on your CV, is it going to be yet another case of those who can afford it do and those who can't don't so meaningless to future employers/ universities etc?
Regular but nc incase it's only our school charging this amount

Our school has told the kids not to put DofE or prefect positions or music or dance grades on their PS for UCAS....just to offer another perspective.
What was their reasoning for that?

It's probably because your Council is no longer acting as the operating authority (ours isn't due to budget cuts ). It costs schools a LOT to act as their own operating authority (unless they share that cost in a consortium arrangement with other schools), so many are now outsourcing to private providers.

As pp have said - Scouts and guides are their own operating authorities so usually able to offer DofE much more cheaply.

However I MUST point out, because this myth gets spread year after year after year - UNIVERSITIES DO NOT GIVE A SHINY SHIT ABOUT D OF E, OR GRADE 8 PIANO, OR VOLUNTEERING AT THE CAT RESCUE, UNLESS THOSE ACTIVITIES ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE DEGREE.

It's not just your school. We have also been quoted £250 plus the cost to the local council which was around £65. The £250 goes to the company that now run it. Other parents at the school have children in scouts etc and yes, they are getting it for a much reduced rate. Also, I went to a meeting about the DofE and the presenter was quick to tell us that DofE was considered the top attribute from prospective employers (after grades, but before work experience which I find hard to believe!)

My son did D of E entirely for free through an organization that was loosely affiliated to Scouts so I dunno why anyone would pay all this kind of money when there's alternatives

Try contacting them directly - www.dofe.org/about-us-2/
The award was set up to be inclusive, so your experience doesn't make any sense.

It's really sad but at my school three members of staff have given up hours of their time for meetings etc and then a weekend for the walk every year but they receive no money or time back. In addition all the responsibility that comes with it means it's not worth staff volunteering anymore. This is the same for all trips, trying to get cover is a nightmare so it's easier sometimes to not do them.
The national citizens service do a brilliant two week course which is very cheap and includes lots of activities.

That's ridiculous and completely against the ethos of dofe. It should be accessible to everyone regardless of income.
That's exactly how I feel. I think as it seems a lot of pp schools are now charging this sort of fee, I'll go with my gut and suggest alternatives. Also hadn't thought about the fact that this is just bronze, and only doing gold would make an applicant stand out now.

titchy really, all courses at all universities? (Genuine question - I'm not doubting you.)

Why are we constantly told otherwise by the school?

The same has happened at my daughters school with a massive price rocket. We felt that the cost was unreasonable and it wasn’t something we could commit to.
A number of the kids “failed” their practice expedition, which is unheard of. Their parents had to stomp up more cash for a second trip before the real thing. The majority have dropped out after Bronze, not going on to do Silver. That in itself speaks volumes.
In my opinion, it’s lost it’s value as so many kids do it. Our daughter thought it’d be more valuable to volunteer off her own initiative. By becoming more involved her the local community she’ll develop the skills she needs. She is already actively involved in sport, showing leadership and team work.
An UCAS personal statement can draw on other strengths. We go out walking as a family for free!

I certainly got that impression while doing uni visits with DD this year. I don't think they are bothered if you have done World Challenge either. I suspect they are more interested if you have done something for the community like help at Cubs/Brownies/Youth club etc.

You’re probably told otherwise because bright eyed bushy tailed teenagers showing off their awards looks good on the school website here.

In the not so distant past, I did admissions interviews for university. I can confirm, I did not give a shiny shite about DofE.

I'm not having a go at the teachers, I can completely understand why they wouldn't want to do this as well as all the other school trips and extra curricular activities.

Schools and scouts are only able to offer it more cheaply if parents and teachers offer to run it in their own time. How many of those moaning about the cost have volunteered their time to help run it? I'm sure our school was about £70 for bronze. Gold has just cist us about £600 But that's because DS1 has problems with his feet and therefore opted to kayak and that meant buying in outside resource. DH drives the minibus for the school organised trips and I do the data protection stuff. The group is run by a parent as are all the leaders parent volunteers. If the school don't have the volunteers then they will need to buy in outside companies.

titchy really, all courses at all universities?

Yes. Unless that extra curricular is directly relevant - so working in a cat rescue might be relevant for vet med as part of a range of animal experience, but History at Durham - nah!

Why are we constantly told otherwise by the school?

Because schools don't have that much experience of university admissions, and like to have wholesome stuff their students have done to put in newsletters to impress parents

I'm pretty sure it was less than £50 for DS to do it last year I think it was £20 or thereabouts. The school provided the rucksacks and we got the rest.

It's the Operating Authority issue as well - I'm sure ours isn't the only LEA who can no longer authorise schools to run the award.

My son has just signed up through school, it's £95 which includes weekly training meetings, a weekend away training and the expedition itself. Plus travel costs etc. All the kit will be needed. Although he does scouts so has a lot anyway. X

I'm really surprised that Uni don't look at these things, would that even be the case if it was a tight contest for places on a popular course? I like pp idea of volunteering off their own initiative, would that be worth doing very?

@Allgoodfun unis don't care about either d of e or ncs. They care about hobbies directly related to their course.
However employers post uni do care about stuff like that. It enables the student to have examples of times when they have been under pressure, led a team, something went wrong how did they cope, interpersonal. Skills, working in a team etc.
So it is still worth doing.

According to staff at open days. It's not about stating what you've done it's about saying what you gained from that and why its relevant. So to use titchy,s example, you could say that you volunteered at the cat sanctuary for dofe and that you learned about the importance of structure and organisation and resposibility that it's made you get on and gets things done even when you may not have wanted to or something like that.

Does your local youth service have a dofe group? Ours has done for years (well since before I did it many years ago.) and they keep the cost to a bare minimum. it is only over the last few years that schools have started providing it in my area.

wax our school never allows parents to volunteer for anything, and as I've already said I'm not blaming teachers.
You could afford to do that to help your dc, and that's great, but a lot of parents couldn't, which is my point. Instead of being all inclusive it's going to be yet another "school trip" which the less well off can't do, and I think that lowers it's value as a guide to a teenagers ethics.
Though it sounds like it's not worth much to Uni anyway, which to be fair, was the only reason my DS thought he should do it, rather than wanting to.

It's a great thing for the kids to do, and, a real achievement.

Our school offers it to 60 kids and names are pulled out a hat. £90 and we supply the kit.

DD's really keen. There's loads of reasons for doing it other than uni applications, it's exercise, teamwork, safety, skills, budgeting, being reliable and fun. Glad she's doing it. Specially as it's £90 and not some of the prices you guys are talking about.

Cross posted with last few posts, which now make a good case for doing it again.
Sadly we don't have any local youth clubs, not sure if local scouts offer it as DS hasn't wanted to join