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Duke of Edinburgh Award

HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, founded The Duke of Edinburgh's Award in 1956. Today, Prince Edward is now 'Head' of the organisation, although it retains the original title. DofE is a flexible programme that helps develop young people for life and work. It gives them the chance to do something completely new and improve on things they are already doing. It takes them out of their comfort zone and into a place where they push themselves and have amazing new experiences. They build confidence, resilience, skills for work and friendship groups.

Looking forward, the DofE can help young people carve out a better future for themselves. Colleges, universities and employers regard a DofE Award highly, so it will help to open the right doors.

There are three different levels of award: Bronze, Silver and Gold. At The Weald, we offer Bronze and Silver Awards. Students completing a Bronze Award would start in the middle of Year 9 and finish in Year 10 or 11. The Silver Award is available to Year 12 students.

There are four categories that students must complete to achieve a DofE award:

  • Skill
  • Volunteering
  • Expedition
  • Physical

DofE is very popular at The Weald and we have one of the highest participation and completion rates in West Sussex. This is because we insist that all participants must complete the other three sections before embarking on the expedition. We do this to ensure they gain the Award and benefit fully from all the positive self-development that the Award offers.

Our Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator is Ms E Mead, so if you would like further information, please contact her via email at [email protected]

Find out more by visiting the DofE website here.


D of E Award - Overview of the last three years

As most of you already know, this Award is a National Award that involves our students participating in four different activities: a volunteering activity, learning or continuing to develop a physical activity, and learning a new, or continuing to develop a skill. 

The last two and a half years have seen disruption to the programme due to covid, as a significant number of our students were unable to complete the Award. However, the good news is that they do have until they are 25 to do so, and wherever they move to, there are always centres with which they can complete their expedition.

In addition, the DofE organisation did issue Certificates of Achievement for those who managed to complete three sections without expedition, which they received through their eDofE account. This is continuing, so that if a participant is unable to complete the expedition for any reason, they can still gain recognition for what they have achieved.

This past academic year was the first in which we were able to complete expeditions, and so far, we have seen the majority of our participants (out of 63) complete the Award. We are still rounding up those who have not quite signed everything off, but do hope to hold a presentation evening in the new year to present certificates. The date will be confirmed in the near future.

2022-2023
This year we have over 89 Year 10 students involved in the Bronze Award. The majority have already got going on their activities outside of the school day and the dates have been set for the training and expedition next calendar year. These dates are:

Training weekend: Blackland Farm, near East Grinstead
Saturday 29 April - Sunday 20 April 2023

Qualifying Preparation Day (route planning, menu, teamwork, equipment checking):
Sunday 11 June 2023 at 9.00am - 1.00pm in the Sixth Form Block.

Qualifying Expedition weekend: Washington area of the South Downs
Saturday 24 June - Sunday 25 June 2023.
Letters with these dates will be sent out by the end of the Autumn term, 2022.