Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award
If you have completed your Bronze DofE award but you want even more of a challenge then Silver is for you. Then around June each year you can sign up for the opportunity to complete the NEXT STAGE. It’s a fantastic opportunity to further develop SKILLS and ATTRIBUTES that EMPLOYERS, COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES love.
Silver | Start Your DofE
Physical
Volunteering
Skills
Expedition
June
Application
Pupils invited to apply for the award by submitting an application to a member of school DofE staff by the set deadline. Priority given to pupils who meet the deadline with late applications put on a reserve list
Programme planner submitted for approval if application successful
If offered a place, pupils have until the end of school term to find suitable activities, assessors and create goals for each activity. The planner must be shown to a member of school DofE staff to check all are suitable.
July
Start Activities
Pupils are free to begin all activities from 1st week in July if able. Evidence needs to be recorded through the one note evidence tracker on the Silver DofE team (an example is below). If pupils are unsure how to use this over the summer, keep a note of their evidence in a different format and seek staff help when returning to school.
August
Checkin
Pupils offered a place will be called to a meeting to check in and be handed all necessary paperwork to be completed.
Complete Necessary Paperwork
Paperwork must be returned by the given deadline to confirm their place on the award. They must also transfer their goal and plan to their one note evidence tracker if not completed already.
Reserve List
Pupils on the reserve list will be contacted should pupils withdraw or fail to make the deadlines
September
eDofE Refresher
A quick refresher session will be run for all pupils on how to log in and use the eDofE app. Pupils should upload all the details from their programme planner to the app and submit them for approval by school DofE staff.
Activities should have begun
All pupils should have begun all activities. Each week the following needs to be recorded into the one note evidence tracker
- Date/time of activity
- A brief summary of that weeks activity with reference to their overall goal and plan
- A picture where possible of each activity (this can be a screenshot of a tracking app, a picture of the recipe/final dish, a picture of you completing the activity)
September - February
Activites being completed each week
As above, each activity is completed for 1 hour each week and logged on the one note evidence tracker.
Screenshots of Log Book uploaded each month
Every 4 weeks, a screenshot of evidence in correctly uploaded to the eDofE website
Meeting Once per Month
Pupils attend this meeting (or make arrangements with staff if unavailable) to get feedback on evidence and ensure all completed weeks have been logged and screenshots uploaded to the eDofE app.
Home will be contacted for pupils falling behind with this making them aware their place on the award is in doubt.
March
Deadline for evidence completed, uploaded, and assessor report submitted
Pupils should target to have their 3/6 month activities completed, evidence uploaded to eDofE and assessor reports submitted to the eDofE app
If pupils meet this, they will be enrolled onto the expedition module
Expedition Module Training
There will be a single after school navigation walk to refresh on map reading/compass work, this is required for the expedition.
Direct entry silver pupils will need to also attend Bronze expedition training sessions which run after school each week
As Silver pupils, you will be asked to help out with 1 after school Bronze training session.
Practice Expedition
This will be a 2 day (2 night) expedition and will likely run the last week before the Easter holidays. This must be completed to continue with the award.
April
Plan for expedition
Pupils will need to meet as a group and create a route and route card for the final expedition. They will also need to plan meals and agree which equipment each will carry. Items can be borrowed from school with a small deposit being refunded once all items are returned.
June
Expedition Presentation
After the expedition, the group needs to prepare and deliver a group presentation of their expedition experience. All members need to be involved to pass the expedition section
Finish evidence for Physical, Skill and Volunteering sections
As mentioned before, any pupils with outstanding activities to complete, evidence to be uploaded to eDofE and assessor reports submitted to the eDofE app need to get this completed.
A deadline of end of August will be set for all pupils who previously completed bronze (October for direct entry Silver) to have all sections completed, assessor reports uploaded and sections signed off by school DofE staff.
If this deadline is met, the school will refund the pupils entry fee of £25.
Any pupil not meeting this deadline can still gain their award on completion but the school will not refund the entry fee.