Duke of Edinburgh award - is it OK to count things you already do as your activities/skills?

[catlover99]

DS and I disagree about this, so just wondering what people think - should you be doing new skills for the Duke of Edinburgh award or is it really OK to recycle activities you do anyway?

DS (Year 9) is really keen to do the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award next year. His school push it heavily and keep the costs as low as possible, so it seems like a good thing. Anyway, his suggestions for the various skills are football for the physical skill and trumpet for the other skill and then helping kids at lunchtime with reading in the library for the volunteering. The volunteering sounds good, but the other two feel a bit like cheating to me as they are basically activities he has been doing for years anyway and has no plans to stop. So he would be ticking the boxes with stuff he does anyway.

I sort of don't see the point of doing the award if you are just ticking boxes in this way, but maybe I am being a bit obstructive about it? My DS thinks I am! I am trying to persuade him that he should do something new (like badminton or table tennis for the physical, or learning to cook or something for the other one).

What do you all think about it, and what did your kids do?

For bronze, DD mostly did things she was already doing. She didn't honestly have time to take on a new thing. But she did set herself some specific goals. So for her skill, she was aiming to pass a specific exam in the thing she did.

For silver, she did try a new skill. But she continued with the same volunteering and physical, but just set herself more challenging goals. It's worked out pretty well and there has definitely been some personal development involved.

Not decided on gold yet. She still needs to survive the silver expedition, which is with a group that all walk faster than her!

It is fine but the intended outcomes need to be clearly defined and measurable by someone who can sign it off. Ie. Achieve grade 6 with merit, perform at music festival

Back in the mists of time when I did it - yes, it was okay, but you had to show some improvement. Our group started through our swimming club, so it was natural to use swimming as our physical activity.

Of course you can use existing activities :-) still got to put in the hours and log progress.

Thanks, this is helpful - sounds like I am being the difficult one here . I am not very familiar with the DoE thing, so I guess in the end he will probably do what he thinks is right and school will guide him - I have not been involved until now and was just bit surprised at what he told me today about it! Measuring clear progress - hmm, maybe his football coach/music teacher could help with ideas there.

My DS told me that I should just relax and he will 'sort it all out'. Except of course that I am paying!

It's a great idea to count things you already do. I help to run DofE at the school I teach in and we encourage pupils to use what they already do. With the 3 different sections there will usually be something new they have to do anyway.

Steps yes, that is true, there is probably always something new to get out of it, and the volunteering part will definitely be a new thing for him. And the whole hiking part will definitely take him out of his comfort zone as he is not naturally an outdoors type .

The thing I found was that having to do something for DofE that they were already doing, kept them at it when they are just at an age when they wanted to start sliding a bit. My eg was that DS carried on with his guitar, and with his school guitar ensemble at a time when he really would have been happy to quit. He's now enjoying it more and is at quite a respectable place. The DofE sort of got him over a hump, so to speak, and that is very useful in its own way.

DS did a combo. Started playing squash from scratch but carried on with LAMDA as his other activity. And did some (new to him) volunteering to fulfil that side of things for the Bronze Award.

I've heard it said (possibly on MN) that some cheat and get people (family and friends) to sign off that they've been doing activities that they've actually not done at all.

NewModel yes, that is always a fall-back option I guess! My DS suggested yesterday that I was a bit out of touch with how these things are done, and I am thinking now that maybe he is right.

I guess I was a bit about it as he has been doing both football (which he is not very good at but loves) and trumpet (which he is very good at and also loves) for ages, and these have sort of been the things that have defined him. So I thought he should be doing something different that took him out of his comfort zone.

But a combo does sound like a good way forward, and in fact that is what we ended up with this morning (keeping trumpet, but taking up table tennis instead of football).

Thanks everybody!

Catlover99 good to hear that your DS is taking up table tennis. DS started playing squash and still doing it three years later, so it was worth it!