To think this a crazy price for DofE Silver Award

[Fgsvirgin]

School have just sent the letter. (Not a fee paying school.)

It is £420 (plus a £50 deposit).

That seems like an awful lot to me for a trip where you have to provide the transport there and back yourself, provide the food and some of the kit.

The price is set by the third party company organising it and does include training sessions (not an overnight session just a couple of classroom based sessions and one 7 hr walk), the registration fee and loan/hire of the tent, cooking stove thing and coat/waterproof bottoms and sleeping bag if you want. This is what the deposit is for.

Does that not seem a really expensive hike to you?

I suppose I’m comparing it to other school trips where they get a couple of nights away with food and transport for less than £300.

I should have seen it coming when Bronze was £300 but I paid that blindly thinking that is how much these things cost!

If your child did D/E Silver, how much was it?

(I realise the key here is that there is a third party company arranging it so I suppose I’m looking for responses from those who also have experience with third party D/E companies.)

Seems fair enough..tbh

This is a lot. We use chase and it’s not that much.

It also includes a full practice expedition.

I wouldn't pay that. Hiking is free apart from the equipment. That's part of the appeal. Could you not just take your DC hiking yourself?

I think doing it with the explorers is cheaper.

The DC’s school don’t use a third party company so we didn’t have to pay anything for bronze or silver.

120 to do bronze through school.
40 to do through cadets.

We didn't pay, because it was done with a uniform organisation that arranged everything.

The number of man hours involved in planning, supervising etc, is phenomenal. If they are paying staff for that, it will add up.

I think ours was about the same. Scouts did DofE more cheaply though.

We paid £260 for bronze with school but through an external company. Then hundreds on a rucksack, a new sleeping bag, boots, stupid walking trousers they will never entertain again ditto waterproof trousers, lightweight walking tops, a fleece and a waterproof they HAD to have and won’t wear again as they are totally not their style! I reckon it cost me the best part of £600 all in all!!

Costs similar to do via school here. Both my DS did via explorer scouts & cost £120 for silver. I know others who did via school & the explorers definitely got more put of the experience as they did all the planning etc themselves, school group basically pitched up & hiked but did none of the planning. My DD will do it via explorers when she's old enough.

're equipment costs - scout group supplied them with all the tents, stoves etc. So no cost. Personal equipment they already had because used so much for scout camps anyway, maybe bought new boots but no real cost as needed anyway.

Here school charge £200, cadets £40 and £ scouts £100 for bronze.
Look for other providers.

That sounds a bit steep, and not very accessible for all unless it will be subsidised.

does include training sessions (not an overnight session just a couple of classroom based sessions and one 7 hr walk)

How do you think the classrooms where the training sessions are held are paid for? Who pays the staff who run the training sessions and supervise the practice walk and the expedition walk? Plus transporting, storing, maintaining and when necessary replacing the equipment that is loaned?

Where costs are much lower, or minimal, it amost certainly means that people are giving hours of their time as volunteers to run the expedition.

I work in a school and I can tell you that the cost of everything has gone crazy. I am trying to book a residential trip in Devon and the quote from London for coaches works out at £100 a head!

We paid £230 for bronze this year which was a big increase from when DS1 did it 8 years ago

DD did Bronze with school and an outsourced company. It was expensive and much less fun than she has with Rangers (Guides). Whilst I think DoE is a good thing and may be the only time some kids get to do this kind of activity, it's also become a bit of a 'must have' for personal statements rather than a personal challenge. I think she wants to do silver with her friends but I expect the price will be similar to yours OP.
It's the cost of the time and expertise of the Leaders (which is why it's so much cheaper if Scouts or Guides offer it as it's volunteers)

You pay for the training and assessing.
Schools don’t have internet the resources to assess pupils, nor necessarily the expertise.

My son just did gold 4 night practice (Windermere), 4 nights qualifier (Snowdonia).

Was a lot of money all
in - circa £700 for the third party leaders/assessors alone (Wildside expeditions).

D of E (Gold at least) is out of reach now for poorer families - it’s very sad.

*have internal resources

I'm astounded by these prices. My 2 sons have done all levels through to gold and I've probably not spent 400 on all of it. The most expensive thing was one of the residentials for gold. As others have said..join Explorers and do it through scouting. My youngest did bronze through school and it wasn't a patch on the support and training you get through scouting (and some cheating by school in my opinion).

And the volunteer leaders- who are often totally unappreciated!

Exactly his.
Lower costs in the past were due to volunteers.

We need to stop expecting people to volunteer for everything all the time and pay people fairly for their time.

I don’t begrudge the money, but can see now how fewer kids will get the opportunity.

They need to be assessed though. You can’t just go hiking for a D of E gold and say ‘I’ve done it’ and expect to pass.

That is a phenomenal amount, and show what fantastic work all the volunteers at Scouts, Guides, BB, GB, and Cadets all do, for free.

Maybe some of the complainers should think of that sometimes !