The Duke of Edindurgh Award is an exciting, adventurous and fun programme for young people (aged 13 1/2 to 24) that enables them to develop existing skills as well as to try new activities and challenges. There are three levels to the Award; Bronze, Silver and Gold, and the higher the level, the more commitment and personal challenge is needed in order to achieve the award. Each level requires par
ticipants to complete four different areas; volunteering, physical activity, skill and an expedition. The volunteering, physical and skills sections require participants to commit to an hour a week for a set length of time. This could be an after-school activity, a sports club, an individual activity or simply helping out a neighbour or someone in the community. The following states the minimum ages and timescales for the different levels:
Bronze: at least 13 1/2 years old, and 2 sections are done for 3 months, one is done for 6 months. Silver: at least 15 years old, and spend 3 months on one section, and 6 months on the other two. Gold: at least 16 years old, and 6 months on one section, 12 months on the other two. It's up to each young person what they do, and which of the sections they spend longer one- providing every participant with a fun, unique and personal challenge that gives a real sense of achievement at all levels of the Award. The expedition section requires participants to plan, train for and undergo a self-sufficient expedition within their Duke of Edinburgh group, camping overnight. At Bronze level this is 2 days, 1 night, Silver requires 3 days 2 nights, and for Gold participants must do a 4 day, 3 night expedition. Full training and supervision is provided by the DofE group leaders, and for the final expedition the group is unaccompanied as they put all their training into practice. For most participants, this is often the highlight of their DofE Award! We meet every Monday evening at Ysgol Friog, our next Bronze group starts in September 2016, with registration available from April 2016.
