Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme

The Duke of Edinburgh Award Programme

The Duke of Edinburgh Award Programme (D of E) is a real adventure from beginning to end. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from. Students just need to be aged between 14 and 24 and realise there’s more to life than sitting on a sofa watching life pass them by. Find out more from the D of E website by following this link:

https://www.dofe.org/

Copleston High School offers the following Awards to pupils:

Bronze Award – Year 9
Silver Award – Year 10 and Year 12
Gold Award - Year 12 and 13

What does the Duke of Edinburgh Award involve:

The best bit is, students get to choose what they do! The programme can be full of activities and projects that get them buzzing, and along the way they’ll pick up experiences, friends and talents that will stay with them for the rest of their life.
At Copleston we give students the opportunity to complete the following requirements of the Awards:

Volunteering
Physical
Skills
Expedition – Bronze and Silver Expeditions are run as school visits. Gold Expeditions are run by East Coast Outdoors and there is no school invovlement.
Residential – Gold only – support to find suitable placements.

Success in 2023-24

Bronze:

68 pupils completed both Expeditions and have either been signed off or are completing activities.

Silver:

33 students completed Silver Expeditions and are currently completing other activities ready to be signed off before Christmas.

Gold:

1 student fully signed off on Gold.
5 students have completed their Gold Qualifying Expedition and will be ready to get signed off when they have finished their Skills, Volunteering and Physical sections.

DofE at Copleston is fully inclusive as we are able to support students with SEND and additional needs to complete the awards.

Recent Expeditions

At the end of the summer holidays and into the first week of the Autumn term 2024, our gold award students had an incredibly successful expedition and scaled all three of the Yorkshire Three Peaks! They were the first expedition team ever to achieve this with East Coast Outdoors. We were all so proud of them!

Please see below for a gallery of their adventures:

Duke of Edinburgh Gold Expedition 2024

The first group with East Coast Outdoors ever to scale all three of the Yorkshire 3 peaks on their gold expedition!

Useful Information

Recent Expedition dates 2023-2024:

Bronze:

Training and Practice - 27/04/2024 – 28/04/2024, Butley, Suffolk
Qualifier - 15/06/2024 – 16/06/2024, Leiston, Suffolk

Silver:

Training Day – 16/3/2024, Copleston High School
Practice – 30/03/2024 – 01/04/2024, Shottisham, Rendlesham and Hollesley, Suffolk.
Qualifier - 05/07/2024 – 07/07/2024, Bures, Suffolk and Essex

Gold:

Compulsory Training Day, Copleston Students Only: 10/03/2024, , Bures, Suffolk and Essex
Training and Qualifying Expedition dates available on the East Coast Outdoors website:

https://eastcoastoutdoors.co.uk/open-gold

Upcoming Expedition Dates 2025

Bronze

Practice Expedition: 26th- 27th April 2025

Qualifying Expedition: 17th – 18th May 2025

Silver

Practice Expedition: 6th – 8th June 2025

Qualifying Expedition: 4th - 6th July 2025

Gold

Wednesday 30/04/2025 - Sunday 04/05/2025

Monday 01/09/2025 - Friday 05/09/2025

Kit Hire

East Coast Outdoors offers reasonably priced kit for hire, just follow the link below: https://eastcoastoutdoors.co.uk/participant-kit-hire

Useful Documents And Forms For All Awards

Information Specific to Bronze Award

Information Specific to Gold Award

To find out more about residential opportunities, click here:

https://www.dofe.org/shop/aap-gold-residential-opportunities/

For More Information

For further information on D of E at Copleston, please email: ebarlow@copleston.suffolk.sch.uk