Dear GA Families

I am pleased to announce that Gloucester Academy is offering the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to our Year 9 students. 

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is an internationally recognized 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 extra-curricular award that they see as most important for potential applicants to have attained at school.

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 Section

The Skill, Physical and Volunteering sections must be completed once a week with two of these sections to be completed over three months and one over six months.  Students will be assisted in their selection of appropriate activities and monitored throughout the delivery of the award programme.  Students will complete their skill section by attending a compulsory Navigation Club and their physical section by attending their timetabled Period 6 Elite Sport.  It may be that students have activities outside of school that are appropriate for volunteering, however if not, many opportunities will be made available within the school, of which many will be during school hours (before school/lunch times/after school). 

Expedition Section

The expedition section requires participants to undertake an assessed 2-day backpacking and camping expedition.  Before these, participants need to be trained and take part in a practice expedition, of two days and one night.  This must be completed before they will be allowed to take part in their qualifying expedition.  The proposed dates for these expeditions will follow shortly.  

Participants will be expected to have their own personal kit including walking boots; however, the school will have many items such as tents, cooking equipment, sleeping bags, rucksacks that students may borrow if needed.  We will provide information on any kit that may need to be purchased for the expedition in due course.  Financial support may be available in certain cases.

Please contact the school if you would like to discuss this further. 

Costs

GA will cover all costs involved in completing the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award.  This includes:

• D of E registration fee 
• Practice and Assessed expeditions

If your child chooses not to complete the award during the year, there will be a £25 fee to cover all costs associated with the award. 

If your child would like to partake in the DofE Bronze Award, please complete the enrolment form attached and return to the year group Post Box.

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

Yours sincerely 

L Blick

Miss L Blick

Duke of Edinburgh Manager