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.

@AllTheChaos There are ways of doing even gold that dont cost a fortune. Schools and colleges often have equipment they can lend - all tents and cooking equipment are often provided. We donated some of the other stuff we bought afterwards. There are residentials with the disabled where you dont pay anything except transport - and can sometimes reclaim that if low income. Becoming a scout or guide helper can take care of the volunteering. Sport can be parkrun. Skills can be anything you can get someone to sign you off for - people have taken up knitting, learnt to play chess, cared for animals at local rescue centres. If you can afford St Joh do first aid, employers may like that. Richer kids learn to drive.

Thank you, for me it’s ok and I can pay it. It’s just a shame for some who could benefit and can’t due to cost.

That finished a couple of years ago.

presuming you meant four week summer programme for 16/17 year olds?

@Welshmum2010 it is such a shame. The DofE itself only asks for a participation fee of £28.00 at Bronze. Everything else on top of that is charged locally!

Schools get paid extra for disadvantaged pupils. If they are not spending a tiny fraction of that on equipment to loan then it should be taken up with the school. They could also provide funding for expeditions if that is absolutely necessary but schools can run them quite cheaply if they try.

It is not necessary, or even especially helpful, for university but it does show some skills and commitment so if I was interviewing for a low level job I would see it as a benefit. It also often means you have references for an employer and contacts that may help you hear when work becomes available.

Dd is the middle of doing bronze. It was £300 to do it before I even started on kit. It’s outsourced. I knew she would hate it (older dd did it) and sure enough I was right. I picked up her and her friend from the practice expedition and they both cried in the car. Instructors had been horrible, they’d had no sleep and got lost and walked miles out of the way. They were given a number for their group leader if there were any problems but told if they had to use it they wouldn’t be allowed to do the actually expedition as they were supposed to solve problems themselves!!!
She won’t be doing silver.

DD did bronze through the school, It didn't cost her anything to the school, even for the expedition. She volunteered at parkrun. Her sport was tennis (which she did anyway but I paid for) and her skill was crochet which a neighbour signed off on. The school had all the equipment, and teachers volunteered. The expedition was very local, but then again we are quite rural. She did have to buy a rucksack, but borrowed my walknig boots (which were about 25 years old but still good and at least broken in!). She gave up after bronze though as she didn't massively enjoy it all.

DS is doing it through the scouts. Again very little cost at bronze. He is loving it, and keen to carry on to do silver and gold. Sport has been park run. Volunteering is at the cubs. And skills have been lactose free cooking at home which a local vegan friend is overseeing. Expedition was organised by the scouts. Its been a great scheme for him, brought him out of his shell a lot and widened his experience of things. Unfortunately its not taught him to be organised yet, he's done all the work, but hasn't submitted all the forms yet!

I've never quite understood the point of the camping/expedition part.
As a teenager I probably would have enjoyed volunteering and doing some community work.
But going on a hike and camping wouldn't have appealed at all.
If a teen wants to do volunteering then they can just volunteer.
If they want to go camping then surely that can be done through Scouts/Guides/Cadets.
@Welshmum2010 if your child is already attending Cadets why does the DofE need to be done?

Basically the only way it can be low cost is for it to be run by volunteers - either through scouting / guides, or teachers at the school volunteering to run it and take them on all the expeditions. The cost of doing it when there aren’t volunteers is one way of showing how valuable this volunteering is. My kids both did it through school and the amount of coordinating, planning, coaching, weekend time etc that the already busy teachers were putting in on top of their usual workloads was huge.

Whereas for mine it was the hike and camping that drew them to it in the first place, and they would never have signed up to the volunteering otherwise. I guess this is the point - enough of a draw for some bits to broaden skills out in other areas. The camping / hiking bit is to a large extent about teamwork, collaboration and leadership too.

I do also think there are vestiges of “army training the youth of today” about it - especially the carrying of the massive pack with all equipment.

I do think that is rather the point-to try to get kids out of their comfort zones.

But they can do that for much cheaper by joining Guides or something similar.

True, if they only want to do those parts of it. Mine liked doing it with their school friends as well. Also, based on our experience of scouts etc, the expeditions are rather different to what they’d done through scouting, especially at the younger end (age 14ish). Scout camps were a lot about the camping skills, but more things were communally provided - they didn’t usually have to plan their own food, for instance. And they didn’t usually have to plan their own walks at that age either. At explorers level now they do a lot more themselves, more like d of e. Agree there is a lot of overlap, but scout camps / walks often had a different goal to d of e ones. For us, anyway.

There was a modest cost for the exped, but volunteering (DS helped with reading skills of disadvantaged children), cooking (DS cooked various things at home and videoed them, sport (he’s in s team) were all free.

They could also provide funding for expeditions if that is absolutely necessary but schools can run them quite cheaply if they try

You mean if they have sufficient members of staff willing and able to volunteer their free time to organise and supervise.

I suppose the big difference is whether it's about the experience or about getting a certificate at the end.
For example a child could join Guides starting at Rainbows, have lots of experiences, make friends, gain skills, gain confidence, as they get older help out with the younger groups eventually growing up to become a pack leader - but if they don't go on the camping trips, hikes or the jamboree (or whatever it's called) they don't "fail" at being a Guide.
But to "pass" at DofE you apparently have to do the expedition.
Or am I wrong?
Do you get acknowledgement if you do everything except the expedition?

Yes, you have to do all the elements to get the award - volunteering, expedition, physical and skills. I don’t think that’s a problem - if someone doesn’t want to do one part of it, they can do all of these things separately through other routes like you’ve said. I think the point of the award is to demonstrate well roundedness in all the areas. But if you’re doing a lot of volunteering through another route, that’s something you can always highlight on applications etc and tbh I’m sure it would get just as much notice as plenty of people are used to seeing “DofE” on there.

@Talipesmum so me being cynical here - for most teens it's about looking good on a university application/CV 😂

https://www.dofe.org/resiliencefund/

Looks like there is quite a bit of funding around for disadvantaged children - guessing this is what my school were thinking of when they said to get in touch if financially difficult. Suspect the schools etc apply on behalf of pupils if asked. Though I don’t really know.

Could well be for some! For others they like the sound of the activities - at least most of them - and think it sounds good fun doing it with friends. Others probably have parents who want them to do it, it gives quite a few teens a kick up the arse about volunteering which is a good thing (I know at least one of mine never would have without it, and it’s been good for him). This can work out well or badly depending!

I dunno, my school never did it and I’d never heard of it till others mentioned it at uni etc. But it’s been really good for my kids, pushed them out of their comfort zone just enough but encouraged things they always liked too, and it’s helped a bit with independence and confidence, alongside all the other normal stuff they do for that. Plenty do bronze because their mates are doing it too, and back away in horror as they get more into it, or drag along at the back of the expedition grumbling, or do that bit fine but never get round to finishing the volunteering or skills etc.

I’m probably just keen on it because I really really like maps 😆

As I said earlier-for anyone thinking DofE will have any influence at all on University applications, it doesn’t.
It might help on a CV for a job. But definitely not University.

A few weeks ago we went to Buckingham Palace for my son's Gold Award reception. We met some really amazing young people there for whom it had really changed their lives.
My son went straight to Gold because of Covid. He has ASD and like many other young people lockdown had a huge impact on his mental health. Doing DoE brought him back to some level of normality.
He did his through a church group who had loads of kit you could borrow so we didnt have to buy much. They also had a hardship fund and we could pay any larger costs by installments.
He did do a cycling trip to the Netherlands for his expedition which cost about £500 but he did have the option of a hike in Wales which cost less than £100.
He volunteered in a charity shop and loved it so much he stayed on after the time he had to and still visits the shop.
He did driving lessons for his skill which he was doing anyway. He didnt do anything organised for his sport - he did a lot of stuff at home with weights and went out running. We set some targets and a friend who is a PT monitored and signed it off. He did have to do another residential thing which cost £350 but there were some cheaper options.
For him the big gains were about confidence and one self belief, shaking off Covid restrictions, getting out in the world again and he picked up some skills.

Even if it's no direct benefit in terms of his CV, it's been a huge benefit in his personal development which can only help him in the future.

I was going to say exactly this.

If you are considering DofE because it'll make you stand out for a university application then I probably wouldn't bother.

Instead do DofE because it gets you out of your comfort zone, gives an opportunity to learn/try something new, demonstrates that you can commit to something for a period of time, encourages you to interact with people you don't know, volunteer/support the local community, work as part of a team, be resilient when you're soaking wet, have 5 miles left to walk and still have to cook your own dinner on a glorified bunsen burner...

But, to the original question, costs seems to vary massively but there are less expensive ways to complete it.

It doesn’t need to be done she just wanted to as she likes to have things that measure achievements

Schools tend to outsource the expedition and associated training to outdoor centres, which is where high costs come in.

As other have said, uniformed youth groups often offer the expedition side - our Explorer Scout Unit do, at about £50.

Sports - Parkrun, C25 K are both free - we have a couple of running clubs locally where children's membership is £10/year with a parent member. DS did archery, which is quite ££ is terms of safety training, insurance and club fees, and your own bow if you want it, but DD plans to do cricket - her club fees are £40/season (indoor winter season, summer) - as she trains or plays about 3 times a week for 5 months that's about 70p a session!
Her school have after rounders and cricket clubs in the summer term, football and badminton in the winter - they are all free. A U16 swim is £3 at our local baths and you can pay a few £ for an assessment, and their teen gym membership is £21/month (including pool).

A friend's daughter did her volunteering at a stables, and got free riding as her physical activity.

You don't have to be an established "sports jock" to complete the physical activity requirement - you just have to show improvement.