At Blaise High School we recognise the importance of children working hard to climb their own personal mountains to the very best universities in the country, or careers of their choosing. We also recognise how important it is that students have opportunities to develop character traits that will make them successful on their journey. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a fantastic example of this, a true challenge that will develop character traits such as aspiration, courage, teamwork and resilience.

We offer the Bronze and Silver awards to students in years 9 and 10 respectively.

What is the DofE Award Scheme?

The DofE Award is an internationally recognised award for young people, designed to encourage them to develop independence, commitment, leadership, and teamwork through being involved in a personalised programme of activities. The award has also been voted by the United Learning Trust, a consortium of major employers, as the extracurricular award that they see as most important for potential applicants to achieve at school.

Any young person can do their DofE – regardless of ability, gender, background, or location. Achieving an award is not a competition or about being first. It is all about setting personal challenges and pushing personal boundaries.

Through a DofE programme, young people have fun, make friends, improve their self-esteem, and build confidence. They gain essential skills and attributes for work and life such as resilience, problem-solving, team-working, communication, and drive, enhancing CVs and university and job applications. 

The DofE Bronze Award Sections

The award requires those taking part to complete 4 sections:

Skill (learning a skill at least once a week)

Physical (participating in a physical activity at least once a week)

Volunteering (being involved in an activity that benefits others once a week)

Expedition (completing a training and assessed 2-day hike with an overnight camp)

Volunteering, Skill, and Physical Sections

The Skill, Physical and Volunteering sections should be completed once a week, for roughly an hour per section. 

At Bronze award level, two of these sections are to be completed over a period of three months with the other over six months. At Silver award level, two of these sections are to be completed over a period of six months (one of these must be the volunteering section) and the other over three months. All three sections do not need to be completed concurrently. 

There is a wealth of information and activity suggestions available on the DofE website. 

Expedition Section

The expedition section requires participants to undertake an assessed 2-day-1-night (Bronze level) or a 3-day-2-night (Silver level) backpacking and camping expedition. Before the assessed expedition, participants need to be trained and will take part in a practice expedition a few weeks beforehand. Suitable training must be completed before they will be allowed to take part in their qualifying expedition. 

If you have any questions regarding the D of E award, please email our DofE manager, Mr Wallis - wallism@blaisehighschool.co.uk and he will get back to you as soon as possible.

We look forward to guiding the students through this exciting new challenge.