Dropping out of DoE award

[EauDeChlorine]

DD signed up to do her DoE award a few months ago. Unfortunately and without going in to specifics DD now strongly feels that she wants to drop out. (Her father has since become very unwell amongst a few other things) DD suffers from anxiety and feels the DoE and the commitment it takes is too much pressure. I have today approached the school, explained and asked if DD could withdraw and if I could get some of the monies we had already paid refunded considering no activities had started yet. Unfortunately all I got from the school’s finance department was “no, we don’t refund monies that have already been paid” and then when I asked for contact details of the relevant DoE department so I could contact them directly and see if they would be prepared to help the school didn’t want to provide that information either. I don’t think this question is unreasonable bearing in mind we have paid £250 and activities don’t start until June. If DoE don’t want to arrange the refund than so be it but at least I should be able to ask them.

Any advise greatly appreciated. Thank you

DofE don't charge anywhere near this for registration, so the money has gone to the school.
This will be to do things such as pay for their own tents and other camping equipment, and pay for external assessors for the final weekend. Might also be to pay for staff time doing this extra curricular activity.
Mind you, £250 is very steep, way more than our school asked for.

The DofE endeavours to keep your costs down so the current Welcome Pack, which includes the participation fee, is £20 for the Bronze Award, £20 for Silver and £27 for Gold. There may be additional costs for activities and Licensed Organisations that run the DofE, such as schools, may add a small fee to cover their costs, expedition/transport costs etc.. If a school, club or whatever charges you more than this, it is because they include additional costs to them, such as administration costs etc. They MUST tell you of any additional costs and what they cover.

EaudeChlorine,

Does the school use some third party outfit to run the DoE course?

DofE itself definitely doesn't cost anything like that amount.

DD has finished all 3 of her Bronze activities, and has a weekly training meeting for her expeditions (which will be in late Spring). We have paid £40. I expect the only other costs to be a modicum of personal equipment (they provide the big stuff like tents) and personal food.

I do know another local school where a LOT more is charged - much closer to your fee, with I think extra fees for special 'courses' and 'training'.

Definitely the school not DofE.

As someone upthread said, DofE try to keep the costs down so the extra is down to the school. What did they say the £250 was actually for when your daughter signed up?

The school said £50 deposit (which fair enough if I don’t get the this back) and
The price includes: all training, camping fees, toilet hire, qualified staff and leaders, hire of ruck sacks, trangias, fuel, tents, maps, compasses, coach transport to and from the accreditation sites for the qualifier trek, D of E bronze registration fees and licence costs.
The latter I would expect to get at least a partial refund considering the trip takes place in June?

I assumed that the cost was standard and set be the DoE? If this is not the case than someone is on a nice little earner here..

That's a lot of money! We didn't have to pay anything for DS to enrol or complete his activities, but I don't know if that is because he's doing it through cadets in a unit linked to his school and funded by the Dept for Education. I can't imagine that it would be fully funded if it costs £250 per enrollee, so I suspect that PP are right and the school have charged that arbitrarily.

all training - done free by committed staff
camping fees - yes
toilet hire - they stayed at a camp site
qualified staff and leaders - only the assessors
hire of ruck sacks - we had to buy our own
trangias - school owned
fuel - yes
tents - school owned
maps - we provided
compasses - we provided
coach transport to and from the accreditation sites for the qualifier trek - parents dropped and picked up
D of E bronze registration fees - yes valid
licence costs - yes valid.

I honestly was not aware about the differences in cost but reading the comments here I don’t understand why we were charged so much money in the first place. This is not an independent school. Does anyone know if a body that regulates these issues. I’m feel like we are being conned here! thanks

They MUST tell you of any additional costs and what they cover This is on the DOE site - did they do this ?

All we were told was that the estimate cost was £250. That £50 was to secure the place and the remainder to cover the trip which takes place in June. So I really don’t get why i’m being told that all of the monies we have paid are non-refundable. And at no stage were we told that there are cheaper routes to the same award.

Iirc completing a level is not time limited, so the registration fee could be carried over for her to start at a later date. The extra should be refundable.

With D of E I wouldn't expect a refund as the price is for a certain number of students and there wouldn't be anyone to take her place. (They would need to do months of volunteering etc to qualify.)

Thanks LIZS, do you know where I may be able to find more information about this. The school are really having none of it. If it were possible to carry over to next year than perhaps DD would be mentally in a better place. Especially with her dad being so ill.

Wolfiefan, DD hadn’t done any volunteering either? So far we have not been told anything about volunteering?

Eau,

DD found all 3 of her activities - skill, sport, volunteering - herself. It's something the school monitors, but doesn't provide. Their main input is into the expedition, which the students can't necessarily do individually.

They have to do a skills and a volunteering and a physical element. I think it's three or six months for each. Aren't they starting anything until June then? In which case surely someone can take her place.

Eau
To do Duke of Edinburgh bronze they need to do
Volunteering
Skill
Physical
Expedition
The first 3, two have to be done for 3 months the other for 6 months.
The young person is meant to organise these themselves.

The training centre (ie school) usually takes responsibility for ensuring the expedition is properly trained for and organised. e.g. teaches them the necessary map reading, tent putting up, use of trangias etc.

If she joined up at the start of the academic year I'd expect her to be well underway with at least 2 of the first 3 by now.

DD had done her physical and skill by this time of y10 and had started her volunteering. (Her school only supported starting in y10 so young-in-years weren't left behind). To do the final expedition you had to have completed 2/3 of the other sections and be underway with the 3rd.

Nothing at all until June. And we have not yet been told we have to organise volunteering. That’s just another thing she doesn’t need right now.

They also had weekly after school DofE slot where they did the trainings needed for the expedition. Scheduled in were also a 1 day Saturday walk and a practice whole weekend.

Dd is doing bronze. We paid I th8nk £75 which includes tent/backpack and equipment borrowing. She’s been volunteering since September and learning a skill. A club meeting every week after school to plan the trip. Practice walk next week and then a practice camp in May I think (thought that might be the actual camp).

Our school charges a similar amount, or probably even more now. They employ external assessors to train and run the expeditions, and that is what costs the money. It is a hideous amount, but I can see why it costs that much, when teachers are stretched to the limit and just don't have the capacity to train and then assess expeditions.

I very much doubt that the school is making a profit. Our school charges a similiar amount for the practice and final expedition. They employ an outside company to train and run the expeditions and to provide the kit. The school don't have enough trained expedition leaders for 80 year 9s to participate. Those on pupil premium pay a lower rate.
I am surprised that they haven't started the other sections as there is no need to wait.

In the school I teach in the d of e co-ordinator has a TLR (teaching and learning responsibility) of about £2.5k extra a year and gets an extra free (which another teacher would be effectively needed for) each week. Maybe some of the money goes towards that? Surely your dd knows who runs DofE so could approach him/her herself, or at least give be you their name so you can ring them directly. I really think you should be allowed most of your money back.

Seven, that’s part of the problem.. apart from the finance office at the school there seems to be nobody who knows anything about the DoE.the head of year who supposedly runs the scheme just refers us to the finance office. Have asked the finance office whom I can contact to discuss the matter further and no response. The finance office seems to be controlled by nobody?