Duke of Edinburgh scheme

[Welshmum2010]

Is anyone else’s child doing this ? I had always thought this was a sort of charity thing and was to encourage kids who wouldn’t have much oppertunity to be outside or do sports and activities. Turns out the cost makes it the opposite. It’s cost £100s for camping fees, registration and equipment. Also the sports element needs to be something that can be measured so there’s a cost for sports clubs. In my daughters school all the kids (as far as I can tell) are the ones who are already sporty or do other activities out of school. It’s a real shame as I thought it would be helping those who can’t afford these experiences usually.

I feel the same. I think the kids that already do these things do the scheme. It's still good to do, but I wish it was more achievable for everyone.

It was £800 at my sons school for the expedition. There was some support if you were on pupil premium but nothing if you were just over the threshold.

You can sometimes borrow camping equipment from other families or buy ug swcondhand relatjvely cheaply and the sports doesn't have to be a club. It could be park run or doing an online fitness program as long as someone could sign them off (maybe a pe teacher? ) it could even be a school sports club?

The sports could be e.g. doing park run & training for it with a goal of improving the time.

The expedition does seem to vary wildly in costs dependent on whether the school brings in an external company, already has its own equipment etc.

Dt have just done this through school.
As they get free school meals they got everything payed for except sport. School also can supply all equipment. I had to purchase a share of the food (probably about £10 per camp).
Dc1 did martial arts at £5 a session for 12 weeks. Dc1 is going to do the silver award by being given free sports sessions in return for volunteering at the club.
Dc2 has asd so struggled with the sport. Did a weekly walk showing a longer distance each week or harder walk. Dc used a tracker as proof and the teacher signed it off.
If we'd had to pay I think it was £100 plus sports.

Bronze is easy and cheap, no need to pay for any activities, just need someone/teacher to sign them off. The expedition costs depending on whether the school uses teachers as "volunteers" or brings in a company.

Bronze is kind of meaningless on its own though, and Gold can be very costly. However, you have until 25 to finish that, so if it is important, child could somewhat self-fund it. That is much more impressive than parents giving all the money to get them through.

There are ways to save money on some areas but it’s still fairly costly overall. Our school doesn’t offer any financial help

It's cheap at my DC's school because the teachers supervise the expedition. I think it costs more if the school uses an outside company. And I'm sure you can do something like running for the sport and take videos etc and get it signed off by someone you know.

Have you looked at the National Citizen Scheme? It's similar to DofE but very inexpensive (I think it's subsidised by the government)?

No I’ve never heard of that. D of E is affordable for me, I just think the cost is a bit disappointing as it excludes a lot of people

That’s why I didn’t get to do DoE when I was at school, and why DD won’t either. It’s galling.

Yes, this. Teachers, bless them, ran and supervised all of it, so no outside company to pay. Bronze cost was £100 - £150, and they said if you’re experiencing financial hardship get in touch to discuss. They also had a lot of kit to lend out if needed.

Its usually pretty much free through Scouts or Cadets

It costs £60 to sign up at our school, and there is financial assistance available, so no one is excluded. We had to provide a rucksack and sleeping bag - tents, cookers etc are provided by the school, which also holds a limited number of sleeping bags and rucksacks for anyone who needs them. There haven’t been any additional costs…

And half my son’s year group are doing it - they’ve had to put on two extra expeditions!

Oops, just seen that this was disbanded in March! What a pity - it was very popular.

Yes DD has recently joined the Cadets and I think it is heavily subsidised.

I absolutely agree. It is possible to do it through the Scouts, but it still costs. By the way-if anyone is only doing it because they think it will help with University applications, it won’t, so relax!

That's been ended unfortunately.
Edit: sorry just seen your follow up post.

For the activity, my DS recorded his activity on Strava - an App which is free to download to a phone. This showed he was doing a sport regularly.

@Welshmum2010 sounds like your school has outsourced the provision of DofE to an external provider. It might be worth getting in touch with the actual DofE office locally to see if there is any financial support available. There is a regional office in Wales (if that is where you are). Have a look at the Contact Us section of the DofE website. They may also be able to point you to a non-school provider local to you, which may offer a more affordable alternative.

My daughter is in the cadets as well but there is only one d of e camp per year that’s massively over subscribed

Do Couch 2 5k and parkrun for the sport then it doesn't cost anything!

Dd did it through a youth group IIRC it was £60 all in (for bronze), there was a hardship fund for anyone who couldn’t self-fund. Dd helped raise some money towards it by babysitting. We go camping regularly so she already had most of the kit needed. £800 seems a complete piss take and someone making a tidy profit!

Is it just your DD's unit or they all applying for it nationally because DD's unit is quite small. Her school also offer it and I think the teachers' run it.

It’s regions, she’s in air cadets. As it didn’t run over covid the kids who are about 17 are doing bronze now so the younger ones have to wait