Gold Award - Duke of Edinburgh

You can start your gold award once you are 16. For most students this means when they start at Castle Sixth Form. You do not have to complete Bronze and Silver to enrol in Gold but it helps.

To complete the award you need to carry out five sections. Skill, volunteer, physical and residential. If you finish these four sections you will then be invited to complete the final section which is the expedition.

Skills involve learning a new skill such as chess, fishing, learning a musical instrument, learning to drive. A full list of possible activities is available here.
Physical involves taking part in sport or dance. A full list of possible activities is available here.
Volunteer involves getting involved in helping in the community. This could involve helping in a charity shop, maintaining local footpaths, helping with rainbows or beavers. It is important that you do not volunteer for a company where you would replace a worker. A full list of possible activities is available here.
The residential section involves going award for 5 days (four nights) in a residential setting. Previous candidates have gone deer stalking, volunteered in the Yorkshire Dales, volunteered in Kenya, carried out a V residential in Ukraine, and taken part in an outdoor activities week at Marle Hall. The list of possible activities is here. Companies who run residential weeks advertise them on the D of E web site.

The time you need to do in each section is shown below.

The expedition for Gold is the final part of the award. Candidates plan and choose their own expeditions. The practise expedition is organised to help develop the skills needed for the final expedition.

Previous expeditions have involved paddling the Great Glen in Scotland, paddling the river Spey in Scotland and paddling the River Tarn in France. This years expedition is planned on the River Tweed and next year the group are planning an expedition which involves accessing some remote Scottish mountains by canoe in Knoydart. But you do not have to canoe, expedition ideas are available here.

To start the award download an enrolment form and give it to Mrs Spooner (pigeon hole in castle school staff room). Once you are enrolled you can login to eDofE with your username and password (if you do not have one, it will be emailed to you) and you will be able to see the gold award.

When you first log in you need to complete the personal information then you can get started on your D of E. You need to set objectives for the skill, volunteer and physical and submit it for Mrs. Spooner to approve. Once approved you can start your activity.

If you have already been doing one of the activities you may backdate it. For example if you play in the school rugby team you can use this for your physical and back date. The eDofE website will guide you how far back you can start the activity.

If you have any questions about the award, you can email Mrs. Spooner (ks.pesp@ksn.org.uk)