Bronze DofE Handbook

2024-2025
Welcome to the Bronze DofE Award. This document is intended to give you all the key information
about how the Bronze Award operates at Whitgift, along with important instructions on deadlines
and responsibilities participants will need to adhere to.

Outline of the Bronze DofE Programme

The Bronze DofE Programme runs on Tuesdays after school from 4-5pm, starting in the second half of
the Michaelmas term. During these sessions we will be preparing for the expedition section of the
Award. Skills covered during these sessions include:

Map and compass work

The Countryside Code
Clothing and equipment for an expedition
Route planning
Food and cooking on an expedition
Tent pitching
First Aid

The programme is formally launched after the October half term, with the first two sessions taking
place on 5th November and 12th November. At these sessions, students will meet the team they have
been placed in that they will work alongside for the rest of the DofE programme, including the
completion of the expedition. There will also be an introduction to the eDofE platform and full
instructions on how to use it.

Because the completion of the Award requires significant time commitments alongside training for
the expedition section, boys will not be required to attend sessions in school from 19th November
until the end of the Michaelmas term to allow them to devote more time to the different sections of
their Award. Weekly expedition training sessions will recommence at the start of the Lent term.

The programme culminates in the completion of the expedition in the second half of the Trinity term.

Attendance at Tuesday DofE sessions

In order to take part in the expedition, students are required to have undertaken the full training
programme, so attendance at all sessions is essential. Whilst we understand that occasional
circumstances may crop up that are beyond a student’s control, requiring them to miss a session, it is
important that this is communicated in advance to Mr Read, who will monitor attendance. Where
possible, all activities missed should be caught up on before the following week. Repeated absence
from Tuesday sessions may lead to the removal of a student from the programme.

Attendance at practice walk on Sunday 23rd March 2025

It is a requirement of the DofE that anyone undertaking the expedition has undergone sufficient
training. The practice walk forms an integral part of the training programme, as it is the only
opportunity provided to practice the map and compass skills, developed in the in-school sessions, in
an environment similar to the one in which they will complete the expedition. It is therefore
expected that all participants attend the practice walk. Please keep this date free.
Completion of physical, volunteering and skills sections

Only students who have completed their skills, volunteering and physical sections of the Award will
be allowed to take part in the expedition in June. In order to help students remain organized and
meet this prerequisite for attending the expedition, internal deadlines are also set for the completion
of other sections of their Award. Failure to meet these deadlines puts a student’s place on the Award
in jeopardy and may ultimately result in removal from the programme.

In order to count towards the DofE Award, activities should be completed for 1 hour per week for the
whole of the specified time period (3 months or 6 months). At the end of the time period, an
Assessor’s Report must be completed, which must be saved in the student’s eDofE account.

The earliest date any activity can start to count towards a student’s DofE Award is 1st September
2024. Activities do not necessarily need to start in September, and it is absolutely fine for
participants to wait and start their activities once the programme formally launches in October.

eDofE accounts

As part of the enrolment process, students will have an eDofE account created for them. This is
where they will keep records of the activities they are completing, including their assessors’ reports.
When this account is generated, students will receive an email to their school email address
containing their username. Unless the username has already been taken, the default username is
their name in the format FirstnameLastname with no spaces. The default password is the
participant’s date of birth in the format ddmmyyyy with no spaces or punctuation. When the account
is first accessed, users will be required to enter some personal information and then change their
password. Once passwords have been changed, there is no way for staff to look them up. In the
event that a participant forgets their password, they must use the ‘forgotten password’ link to reset
it.

Once a participant has logged on for the first time and completed their personal information, they
will receive a welcome pack in the post from the DofE.

Full instructions on how to use eDofE will be given during the second DofE session, in November.
There is no need for students to access their account ahead of this time, even if they have already
made a start on one or more of their activities. Once students receive instructions on how to use
their accounts, they will be able to backdate the start of any activity to 1st September 2024 at the
earliest.
Assessor’s reports

An activity will only count towards the DofE award once an Assessor’s report has been completed
and attached to the relevant section in a participant’s eDofE account. Assessor’s reports should be
completed by a suitable adult after the activity has been undertaken for the minimum time period.

There are a number of ways an assessor’s report can be successfully completed. The most infallible
way of doing this is to ask an assessor to input the report directly into the DofE website by visiting
https://dofe.org/assessor . They will need to input the participant’s DofE number, which the
participant can look up in their eDofE account and give to their assessor.

Reports completed in other ways can be photographed and the images uploaded into the
participant’s account. If reports are completed in any way other than direct online entry, it is
important that the following information is visible within the report to meet the criteria stipulated by
the DofE:

Name of participant
Start date of activity
End date of activity
Progress made towards participant’s goals
Name of assessor
Position of assessor
Contact details of assessor

Overview of dates and deadlines within the DofE programme

Tuesday 5th November 2024 First DofE session after school, 4-5 pm
Tuesday12th November 2024 Second DofE session after school, 4-5 pm
Christmas Holiday
Tuesday 14th January 2025 DofE sessions recommence. After school, 4-5pm. Weekly until
Tuesday 20th May inclusive.
February half term
Friday 21st February 2025 Deadline for completion of ONE section within eDofE.
rd
Sunday 23 March 2025 Bronze DofE practice walk
Friday 28th March 2025 Deadline for completion of SECOND section within eDofE
Easter Holiday
Friday 23rd May 2025 Deadline for completion of ALL THREE sections within eDofE
May half term
Week commencing Monday 16th Expeditions take place
June 2025 (To be confirmed)