Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award

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DofE 黑料不打烊 logo

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at 黑料不打烊

students stood with buckingham palace in the background

What is the Duke of Edinburgh鈥檚 Award?

The Duke of Edinburgh鈥檚 Award ()听is an internationally recognised and valued award, giving young people aged between 14 and 24 the chance to develop skills for life and work.

Each award is both an amazing achievement, and also an individual challenge. Through participation in the award, young people can:

gain a sense of achievement,
develop communication skills,
show evidence of commitment,
experience team working,
develop independent thinking,
discover leadership skills,
develop problem-solving skills,
improve self-confidence,
develop self-reliance skills,
have the opportunity to try something new,
hone their time management skills through their weekly commitments.

Levels

There are three levels of the Duke of Edinburgh鈥檚 Award: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Participants usually complete the Bronze and Silver award before attempting the Gold Award.

What does the Gold Award involve?

The Duke of Edinburgh鈥檚 Award is an inclusive award, tailored to each individual. This enables participants to take part and challenge their own individual abilities.

The skills that participants learn and develop helps them to fulfil their potential and work towards a brighter future.

The Gold Award is a commitment of a minimum of 12 months (though may take longer).

黑料不打烊 supports each student throughout their DofE journey, providing guidance and enabling them to persevere and complete each element of the Award.

There are five sections involved in the Gold DofE Award:

1) Volunteering

students carrying wood at the dofe centre This section is about helping people, the community, society, the environment or animals.

To complete the volunteering section you must commit one hour per week for at least 12 months.

2) Skills

Encourages young people to develop practical and social skills and pursue their personal interests.

To complete the skills section you must commit one hour per week for at least six months.

3) Physical

Helps young people achieve a healthy lifestyle and a greater physical fitness. Physical activities include a wide-range of sports or exercise including (but not limited to) athletics, football, martial arts, dance or swimming.

To complete the physical section you must commit one hour per week for at least six months.

student on a climbing pole doing the peg pole challenge

4) Expedition

This will involve planning, training for, and completing a four day/three night expedition.

The expedition will include travel (this is usually walking, but could be by other modes, eg: bike or canoe), camping overnight and preparing meals using camping equipment.

Download the expedition kit list here.

5) Residential

This will involve five days and four nights away from home, meeting and working alongside new people.

The residential is all about having new experiences, in a new environment and gaining new life skills.

What to expect when participating in the Gold Award

The DofE Awards are, rightfully, a challenge. As the final level, the Gold Award requires more commitment in terms of time and activities, than the Silver and Bronze Awards.

The Award pushes participants to learn new skills, work as a team, complete physical activities and volunteer their time to help others for a longer period of time (a minimum of 12 months).

Participants have to dedicate their time to fulfilling all aspects of the award so it鈥檚 really important that young people and their parents or carers take time to discuss the DofE Award and whether it is something that your young person really wants to do. Whilst staff can encourage participants to attend, the motivation to complete the award has to come from each individual.

Weekly expectations

students sitting around a table doing trangia expedition training

Participants are required to take part in all of the following weekly activities:

1 hour per week timetabled DofE session, where students will learn skills, and undertake volunteering.听 It鈥檚 essential that participants attend these sessions every week in order to build up the evidence of their skill building and volunteering, although additional hours learning skill and volunteering outside of this time can also be put forward as evidence.
A minimum of 1 hour per week of physical activity. This can be a timetabled session or other evidenced wellbeing session.

One-off expectations

Participants are required to take part in all of the following additional sessions:

Off-site expedition practice days
On-site expedition practice and skill/volunteering day
Off-site expedition days
Off-site residential visit

Download the expedition kit list here (which also applies for the residential).

Costs

There is an initial cost of 拢45 for Gold Award registration, which is due by 31 October 2026.

The total cost per residential student for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award is 拢1,395.

To secure a place on the Gold DofE Award programme, a payment of 拢750 is required by 28 February 2027.

We are hopeful that we can obtain sponsorship from local organisations to cover the remaining balance.

If your young person is a day student or a former student there is an additional charge for taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh鈥檚 Award.听Please contact Steve Evans for more information and we are happy to provide a breakdown of the extra costs.