AIBU to despair about DofE cheating

[WhatTheHeckIsIt]

Someone I know very well is the teacher who leads the Duke of Edinburgh at a school. Their teen is going to Buckingham Palace to receive their gold award. There is no way on this planet the teen has completed any of the activities - it's a stitch up.

It's made me feel really sad.

a) I expected more of this person
b) I expected more of their child
c) how could you let your child accept an award amongst people who have worked really hard to achieve it
d) it devalues everyone else's award
e) it's just shit

Rant over - but there's nothing I can do is there?

This is how our society is these days unfortunately. People are so dishonest, sneaky and outright liars.

Why do you believe the young person has not or could not have completed the tasks?

What are your reasons for doubting this child's achievement?

Because I know the family very well.

Thats not evidence.

There is a DofE complaints process but they expect complaints about licensees (i.e. the school running it) to have been raised directly with the school first.

https://www.dofe.org/complaints/

This is a cheeky family of a very high order, definitely. You can have some fun with lots of questions about how their dc managed to fit all those hours of work in, how amazing it must be to do all that whatever it is they do for the DoE. Do they have photos of said amazingly hard work stuff? Make them make up more lies just for your entertainment!

You will need more than that

& with literally nothing of value to gain.

Given that the basis of this accusation is "I know the family" and not, y'know, evidence based then no, there is nothing you can or should do.

Doesn't DofE get sent off to verify?
Which means he would have to have something written down and signed off to show for it

"I know them" isn't a reason. Do you watch them 24/7 to know he didn't have time to volunteer etc?

I suspect that there is a conflict of interest here in that the young person cannot have a family member as their assessor for the activities completed.

If you meet up with someone several times a week & talk at length about life, you get to know details about their lives and their kids lives. It is impossible, knowing what I know, that this teen has completed all the charity volunteering, sports etc that has to be done.
It’s not evidence but then this isn’t a court is it.

I like your style @Weasellyrecognised - noted

Surely someone would have to have assessed each stage (not the parent?). I’ve just assessed someone’s bronze skill and made sure I had evidence of the skill being undertaken over a 3 month period before submitting my assessor report online. I suppose you ‘could’ fake the report but you would presumably need different email addresses etc. I don’t think that one person could easily make it up undetected.

It could be they know the loopholes well enough to either exploit them or do what’s needed which isn’t as much or as difficult as it could be for others.

Karma bites you on the arse doesn’t it. I’d be a social pariah if it got found out it was me being a sticky beak. It’s just given me the rage though.

Some of the activities she volunteering might have been completed during school hours. Some schools allow their students to do volunteer work

Unfortunately it’s been going on for years. A local school used to regularly and fairly openly cheat at Ten Tors (although it’s much more difficult to do these days) and my DofE group leader got furious about it every year.

One of my dc has just completed silver DofE. Obviously the requirements are different, but to the outside observer, it would appear that dc doesn’t have enough time/hasn’t completed the required elements, but given the scope of what can be included for each category, it has been fairly easily accomplished.

it would also be difficult to fake the expedition, as there are teams of assessors, not just one.

Some of the activities like volunteering- not she

Based on what you've said, it is possible that the teen has completed all the activities, and you're the one devaluing their Award by refusing to give them credit where it's due.

A relative of mine did D of E back in the day - no one would have expected him to complete it, given he was the least sporty kid in his year and didn't really talk about D of E much. But my DN silently got on and did all three levels whilst a lot of the other kids dropped out.

I often dropped him off at his activities, so yeah, I know he was there. 🙄 Not everyone doing D of E talks non-stop about it.

You don't know enough to be making claims that the DC didn't do it.

Opened thread to see if it was about Philip or Edward!

My DD carried on with her existing volunteering and sport.

The big challenge was the expeditions and you can’t fake those.

Impossible how?
Doesn't have to be s sport for example, it's a fitness goal so could be walking, the gym, cycling...
Volunteering could be done via online mentoring

Sounds like you making judgements based on whatever you know from a few chats which might not be everything.