Duke of Edinburgh Award

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a fun time with friends, an opportunity to discover new interests and talents, a tool to develop essential skills for life and work and a recognised mark of achievement; respected by employers. The DofE is many things to many people, supporting generations to successfully navigate adult life. As many participants say, it’s life-changing.

Through a DofE programme young people have fun, improve their self-esteem and build confidence. They gain essential skills and attributes for work and life, as well as enhancing CVs and university and job applications. Top employers recognise the work-ready skills Award holders bring to their business. DofE is about helping you along the path to a productive and prosperous future.

At Rangers, everyone is able to complete their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The award has four sections:

Physical
Skill
Volunteering
Expedition
Plus a Residential section for the Gold Award only

You can do the award through Rangers and go on the expedition with your Guiding friends.

You'll probably find that you're already doing the Skill and Physical sections without realising. For example, playing an instrument, having dance lessons, going to CCF, swimming, doing yoga, cooking, blogging and drawing all count. There are literally hundreds of options to choose from! Your Ranger leaders can help you find a volunteering opportunity - and again, there's lots of choice and it can fit into your life. For example, you could help at Brownies, go litter picking, fundraise for a charity or knit blankets for hospitals!

The expedition is the really exciting bit!

For your Expedition section, you will need to complete an unaccompanied expedition, walking and camping with a small group of friends. At Rangers, we:

Do all the required training as part of our normal weekly programme
Teach you all the skills you need for your expedition (lots of them you'll already know, e.g. pitching tents & cooking outdoors)
Run a training walk, a practise weekend and a qualifying expedition
Assess you & sign off your award

Our expeditions are in different locations for each award so that each level is a new adventure:

Bronze: Training around Sudbrooke, Qualifying in Sherwood Forest in late April
Silver: Practice in Sherwood Forest in late April, qualifying in Yorkshire over the late May bank holiday
Gold: Practice in Yorkshire over the late May bank holiday, Qualifying in a location of your choice in the summer

The sign-up cost is £28 for Bronze/Silver and £35 for Gold. There will be additional costs for the expeditions, but we keep these as low as possible. Expeditions & training costs usually total around £25 for Bronze, £75 for Silver & £150 for Gold (plus travel).

You can download the expedition kit list here

What do I have to do?

Year 9 & above Year 10 & above Age 16 & over

Get started!

It's best to do the Physical, Skill and Volunteering, sections before your expedition, but you can't count any activities you're doing until you've registered - so if you'd like to do your expedition next spring/summer, get signed up ASAP!

Information for participants

Here are the lists of eligible activities:

This is how to use the app and add your activities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D80IGvCwbhM

When you add your activities, you have to use very specific wording. The 'Type/category' has to be one of the titles (highlighted in colour) on the lists above. The 'Detailed activity' then has to be one of the activities listed underneath that heading.

You can record your by uploading a photo of your activity each week. Please name your photos Week 1, Week 2, etc.
Alternatively, you can keep a written record of your weekly activity using these activity log sheets.
When you have finished your activity, your assessor needs to write a report either here or using the report cards which were sent to you in your welcome pack. If they use the paper, form, you then need to take a photo and add it to the eDofE app.

If you lose your welcome pack, you can download its contents here.