Duke of Edinburgh

The Duke of Edinburgh Award has grown in leaps and bounds since its being part of the extra curricular provision at SRWA, with many students now taking part in both the Bronze and Silver awards.

The awards are a time for students to not only develop many life skills but also get the chance to spend some quality time in beautiful outdoor settings. The Bronze assessed expedition takes place in the South Downs National Park and the Silver expedition in the Ashdown forest. There are also activities which encourage students to look beyond the academy such as volunteering in the community and enterprise events as well as the community work encountered in our international trips.

Bronze Award

The programme takes place outside of school time and requires students to commit to doing two of the first three elements for at least three months, and one of the others for at least six months The course consists of the following four elements:

Skill: Students have to commit to learning a new skill, of which thousands are possible including recording your favourite football team’s history, learning a language not taught in school and playing a musical instrument.

Physical: Students have to undertake to improve their physical or mental health.  This can be through sport, cycling, martial arts, yoga or even meditation.

Volunteering: Students have to commit to giving up their time for free for a not-for-profit organisation or local community organisation. This can be with animal welfare, nursing homes, beach clean ups or their primary schools.

Expedition: This is a school-led element where students need to learn a range of skills, taught after school on Fridays, to do with camping and navigation. There will be a short walk after school, normally in April, up into the South Downs, to give them brief experience of navigation.

Dates TBC.

The total cost per student is £110.
 

Silver Award

This is a challenging course all of which needs to be completed outside of school hours and requires more commitment than the Bronze Award with an extra day on each camping trip, as well as six months for two of either their skill, physical or volunteering element. They need to do the third element for three months. If they have not yet completed DofE Bronze, then the time commitment is longer.

Silver is a tough qualification and very well received by employers, universities and colleges as it shows commitment, leadership and independence. Typically, students really enjoy the expeditions and so many of those who have completed it, go on to achieve excellent GCSE results, whilst also forming very strong relationships with their peers and teachers, so I thoroughly recommend it to all.

Dates TBC.

The total cost per student is £120.
In many cases we are able to offer help those students who are PP with 50% of the funding. Please contact Mr Stevens on the email below.

Read more about the DofE in general here.
For all DofE enquiries please contact cstevens@srwa.woodard.co.uk.

Expedition Kit List here