The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

at Fortrose Academy

The Award’s guiding principles

• Non-competitive• Achievable by all• Voluntary• Personal development• Demand commitment• Enjoyable

The benefits

• Develops many important life skills• Pupils learn basic skills in first aid,

camp craft and navigation• Pupils work as part of a team and

individually• Advantageous for applications to

college, university and jobs.

Bronze Award (14+ years old)

Volunteering Physical Skills Expedition

3 months 3 months 3 months Plan, train for and complete a 2 day, 1 night expedition

One of these 3 sections must be done for 6 months.

The sections Volunteering: undertaking service to

individuals or the community

Physical: improving in an area of sport, dance or fitness activities

Skills: developing practical and social skills and personal interests

Expedition: planning, training for and completion of an adventurous journey in the UK or abroad

Choosing activities

There is a massive choice of activities that count towards DofE programmes.

• Participants need to choose activities they are going to enjoy.

• Activities could be something that they are already doing.

• Activities should be challenging but achievable.

• Participants should think about their level of expertise, maturity and confidence.

Volunteering

Aim• To inspire young people

to make a difference within their communities or to an individual’s life and develop compassion by giving service to others.

Volunteering Categories

• Helping people• Community action and raising awareness• Coaching, teaching and leadership• Working with the environment or animals• Helping a charity or community organisation

• Helping People• Community Action and Raising Awareness• Working with the Environment or Animals• Helping a Charity or Community Organisation• Coaching, Teaching and Leadership

Here are some of the places pupils at Fortrose volunteered at this year…

• Helping people• Community action and raising awareness• Coaching, teaching and leadership• Working with the environment or animals• Helping a charity or community organisation

• Avoch and Culbokie after school club• Fair trade shop in Dingwall• First Aid with the Red Cross• Coaching rugby to S1• Helping at Munlochy Animal Aid• Helping a child minder• Marine House• Greenhouse Charity Shop Dingwall• Helping at Glachbeg• Helping at Cromarty Youth Club

Physical

Aim• To inspire young people

to achieve greater physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle through participation and improvement in physical activity.

Benefits

• Enjoy keeping fit.• Improve fitness.• Discover new abilities.• Raise self-esteem.• Extend personal goals.• Set and respond to a challenge.• Experience a sense of achievement.

Physical categories

• Team sports• Individual sports• Water sports• Racquet sports

• Dance• Fitness• Extreme sports• Martial arts

Here are some of the physical activities pupils did this year…

• Rugby• Zumba• Badminton• Body Vive• Sailing

• Netball• Climbing @

Aquadome• Hockey• Swimming• Athletics with Ross

County

Skills

Aim • To inspire young people to develop practical

and social skills and personal interests.

Skills categories

• Creative arts• Performance arts• Science and

technology• Care of animals• Music

• Life skills• Learning and collecting• Media and

communication• Natural world• Games and sports

Here are some of the things pupils did this year…

• Road Rally Navigation• Cake decorating• Keyboard• Tuba• Xylophone• Drums in Pipe Band

• Guitar• Flying• Photography• Flute• Music Appreciation

ExpeditionAim• To inspire young people to develop initiative and a

sense of adventure and discovery, by planning, training for and completing an adventurous journey as part of a team.

ExpeditionWhat’s involved before the walk:• Training

– First Aid– Camp Crafts skills– Navigation

• Planning– Decide on a route– Write route cards

All these activities take time and require commitment from ALL participants. You will have to give up a lot of free time to do these.

ExpeditionWhat’s involved during the walk:• Hiking• Camping• Fun• Putting training into practise• All assessed expeditions require pupils to

carry out an aim e.g. ‘studying tourist potential in the area they walk in’.

• Presentation– After the expedition pupils present to parents,

leaders and assessors.

www.dofe.org