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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Bronze Expedition, D of E

37 replies

ViennaDreams · 08/05/2022 18:48

My daughter is doing this later this month and I'm just worried she and her companions haven't been adequately prepped.
Is it normal to do a practice walk? She has no real experience of map reading and when I asked her just now, she said all they've done really is decide on a route. A friend mentioned her daughter did a practice walk so I wondered what the norm is. It's 6 hours of walking a day so plenty of scope to get lost!

OP posts:

TeenPlusCat · 08/05/2022 18:50

My memory is that DD had to do a practice walk. You couldn't do the real thing without a practice.

Bibbetybobbity · 08/05/2022 18:50

It’s not that strenuous typically and is just a laugh to be honest- I wouldn’t worry… it’s a mini adventure, they probably will get lost, my dd did. If it’s organised via school I think they typically do hold a practise walk, your dd could ask the nominated teacher.

LIZS · 08/05/2022 18:54

Are you sure they don't have a training session beforehand? It is really not that strenuous walking although I thought dd camped overnight for her Bronze. They may also be given a tracker so the staff can check who is where in case they stray off course

HappilyHadesBound · 08/05/2022 18:57

Ours did a practice, BUT... They really need to do a lot more prep than that. A lot of people had severe blisters, lots of pain, etc afterward and had time off school- they simply hadn't bothered to prepare and in some cases were either ill-equipped or had failed to break in new boots, etc. Please make sure they don't do it without regular build-up

vickibee · 08/05/2022 18:59

Our son is doing this with scouts he had. A training weekend this weekend and a practice walk next Saturday.

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 08/05/2022 19:01

The school my dc are at Dundee do a practice which I find very strange. Dc1 does it through Scouting instead, doing silver and they are not allowed on expedition without completing a navigation training weekend then they do the practice and are only permitted to complete the qualifier if the instructors think they are ready.

However, I think they do it a little more "properly" than school.

Kite22 · 08/05/2022 19:05

DofE Expedition

Yes, they absolutely should do a practice expedition, but, as pps have said, they should have been adequately prepared before doing the practice expedition.

readingallthebooks · 08/05/2022 19:29

My DD has just done her practise walk this weekend. 2 days of walking, 6 hours each day. They had a DofE leader walk with them the first day but it was just her group today.
They had a full day of training at school a couple of weeks ago where they learned about map reading, putting up tents and cooking. The leaders also talked about kit.
Has your DD not had any of the background info or downloaded the app?

user375242 · 08/05/2022 19:36

Mine has just done a bronze practice expedition, 6 hours walking over two days including overnight camp. The real thing is end of the month. They did very little in the way of giving parents information though! I only got the packing list the week of, and nobody checked the kit. It sounds like there was a lot of staff on the trip though so they probably had a lot of spares. They are allowed to take phones incase they get lost.

AngelsWithSilverWings · 08/05/2022 19:44

My DS did his expedition in March. No practise walk ,no idea why but we just put it down to Covid issues/delays. They were already doing it a year later than they were supposed to because of Covid and the expedition had to be squeezed in so that it happened just after GCSE mocks had finished to get it done before the final push towards the actual GCSE exams.

They walked from school to a Scout camp on a Friday evening which was a two hour walk with full kit including all the camping equipment/tents which were shared out between them.

They then walked all day Sat and Sun too.

My friend's son at a different school did get to do his the year before but they weren't allowed to camp so went home after each day of hiking. They did do a practise walk though.

ModerationInEverything · 08/05/2022 19:57

DD is doing bronze this year. She has had a training weekend, map reading, putting tents up, emergency procedures etc. In two weeks she has the practice expedition and then in a couple more weeks the qualifying expedition.

lostlanguages · 08/05/2022 20:03

The requirement for doing a practice expedition has been removed for the Bronze Award - they are still required to do training, but can now go straight for the exped. The link added by Kite above spells it out.

2MinuteRice · 08/05/2022 20:07

DD did a practice walk about a month ago and the real thing 2 weeks ago.
The weekend before the practice they all had to go into school to practice putting the tents up and packing their bags.

DD's group got lost on both weekends!
The practice and the real thing were in different places.

Wore the boots in for weeks beforehand but still had blisters.

Initially she said she was never doing it again, however mentioned on Friday about the Silver!

I found the difference in price interesting. We paid £320 for DD and they were provided with tangiers and tents.

My friends son at a different school paid £40 and they were given tangiers, tents, rucksacks and a few other bits to save parents buying them.

Original poster

ViennaDreams · 08/05/2022 20:11

She's done the training sessions at school but no practice walk at all. It's one thing talking about navigation in the classroom and another thing actually doing it. We only got the equipment list a couple of weeks back, I can just imagine that some kids will have brand new walking boots never broken in and that sort of thing. I just feel they should have had some sort of hands-on practice, even if only for a day, carrying their stuff etc.

OP posts:

HappilyHadesBound · 08/05/2022 22:39

My daughter has just done her silver practice, and even at that level they're getting severe blisters and other injuries because they're not preparing, it's madness that the kids think they can do that and the parents aren't helping either. I guess those parents never did DofE/scouts etc themselves- I was a scout leader years ago and have spent ages helping my daughter prep.

On cost, her school charges £50 for all expeditions including practices, they have a stack of equipment that they loan out for £1 an item and that includes tents and cookers that the kids are not allowed to provide themselves. Everything else, they can choose to use their own or hire.

It is funny that most of the kids hire bags, so this sea of matching green rucksacks comes out of the van and no-one has a clue which is which! My daughter uses my dh's bright orange one though- which also has the advantage of a side zip so you can get at stuff packed low down without taking everything out and I would make that my first recommendation to anyone buying a bag!

HappilyHadesBound · 08/05/2022 22:40

Oh, and I forgot to say, the £50 is waived for any kids on FSM.

They're also amazing at including kids with disabilities, and my dd has a number of modifications for that.

ChristopherTracy · 09/05/2022 11:55

I think it is upto us as parents to make sure that they have put a heavy rucksack on and walked around the local park in their walking boots tbh.

dabbayabbadoo · 09/05/2022 13:26

OP, do you know if the school is running the expedition themselves or using an external company to do it? Ours uses an external company, for which we have paid a fee, which is fine. However, when my eldest did it, there was a practice day, where they erected tents and learned about how to pack their bags and plan meals. I see no sign of the same thing being organised for DC2. I suspect that either a different company is being used, or the school has gone for a cheaper service. Either way, I don't think the school yet realises it needs to plug the gap to make sure the students are prepared. No doubt parents will start emailing soon, and there will be some last minute sessions organised. 🙄

Muchtoomuchtodo · 09/05/2022 13:38

Our school does it with Urdd.

They have a training weekend - one day of route planning, map reading, meal,planning, putting up tents and using the stoves and another day of a local walk - ours was 10 miles along the coastal path. They didn’t make them carry a bag of kit which I think was a mistake.

Urdd provide all of the stoves and tents and have a number of rucksacks, sets of waterproofs etc that can be borrowed.

They did their expedition this weekend. Loads of kids had huge badly packed bags with things hanging off that they couldn’t really carry comfortably. But it was only 1 night and 2 days so they all survived. I think a lot will think twice before signing up to do the silver!

The kit list is all on the website so there’s no reason that people don’t know this information until the last minute.

HappilyHadesBound · 09/05/2022 14:24

ChristopherTracy · 09/05/2022 11:55

I think it is upto us as parents to make sure that they have put a heavy rucksack on and walked around the local park in their walking boots tbh.

That's my point though- they didn't.

In fact, tons of parents were complaining on the Facebook group about how unfair it was that their kids were going to have to miss school to recover...

Kite22 · 09/05/2022 18:52

I feel sad that so many schools are just "getting them through it" or "getting them to do the bare minimum" and it ends up doing the exact opposite of what the scheme is about. Yes, it ought to be challenging, but it is designed to foster a love of the new experiences of getting out into the countryside, camping (usually) walking, navigating, and so forth, and all these dc being sent out unprepared, not knowing how to pack a rucksack and being uncomfortable, not knowing what food to take and struggling with that, and coming back with blisters, and aching etc is more likely to put youngsters off than encourage more of the outdoor life

Original poster

ViennaDreams · 09/05/2022 23:27

I agree with that comment @Kite22 . This should be about fostering a love of the outdoors, not just getting kids through the process. Also, agree that parents should be assisting at home but my gripe is that our school has made no attempt to actively engage parents. For example, not circulating the kit list in a timely way has been really unhelpful, and yes we can look these things up for ourselves but there are always going to be parents who don't do that and assume everything is being dealt with. This has all crept up on me and I'm suddenly aware my daughter is not properly prepared. Will be taking her on a long walk this weekend to check her map-reading skills but most kids won't get that sort of attention.

OP posts:

Notagardener · 10/05/2022 09:49

Bizarre expectations of what school should do, in my opinion. They are not primary school aged children.
DofE is not just about the expedition, they would have been engaged with other parts to help learn to organise themselves, etc.

In all fairness our school were present during the practice as well as expedition so although some got a bit lost they weren't lost for a long time.
All my DC just did it for fun. I would have hated it....

lljkk · 10/05/2022 19:42

oh how annoying, wrote a long msg out, lost it...

One of the kids on DS's DoE last month hadn't even tried heavy bag on & walked around with it. & they didn't have a practice expedition.

But all completed fine. Things things can work out.

Darbs76 · 10/05/2022 20:09

My daughter isn’t doing it as she’s low on iron and too weak but her school friends all did a practice one (camping on school field) last weekend. My son did a practise one too

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