Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Taking part in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at St Mary’s gives girls the opportunity to push themselves out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves physically and mentally. It helps young people along the path to a productive and prosperous future and builds essential soft skills for their future success. In an increasingly competitive world, participating in the Duke of Edinburgh programme, and developing important skills, will set students apart from their competitors when it comes to university and job applications.

Girls can opt to complete the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at Gold, Silver and Bronze from Year 9 upwards. With dedicated mentors to support girls, this challenging yet fulfilling award is very popular at St Mary’s.

At bronze and silver level, there are 4 sections to complete. There are 5 at Gold:

  • Volunteering
  • Physical
  • Skills
  • Expedition
  • Residential (Gold only)

Full details of the different components can be found here.

Completing the Bronze and Silver Award

Girls completing the bronze and silver awards benefit from dedicated meeting time, with our DofE Co-Ordinators, and small group support in school to help them complete the skills, volunteering and physical sections. The volunteering section can be completed both in school and outside of school – girls are guided through the organisation of their volunteering. Participation in co-curricular clubs can contribute towards the physical and skill sections of the award.

External expedition companies are used to facilitate the expedition element of the awards. All girls receive a day’s training ahead of an expedition which covers First Aid, map skills, cooking craft, team building and route planning. This gives them the skills needed to go on to successful practice and qualification expeditions. Bronze students enjoy their expeditions in the Chiltern area whilst Silver participants go slightly further afield to locations such as the South Downs.

Students are expected to present their aims, learnings and experiences to the Headmistress and Duke of Edinburgh team following their expedition, an expedition which hones presentation skills and encourages independent group work.

Completing the Gold Award

The Gold DofE Award is run quite differently at St Mary’s. So as to maximise the development of leadership and organisation skills and to allow girls to build an award which lends itself to their interests, girls have the flexibility to choose their expedition location and activity with support from school in relation to organising dates and logistics. We support with weekly 1-2-1 meetings if needed, and they will have sessions on food ideas for camp and bag packing ahead of their expeditions.

The benefits to young people of completing the DofE include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Building leadership skills
  • Developing confidence in themselves
  • Making new friends
  • Building independence ready for university life and beyond
  • Self discipline

If you have questions about the DofE Award at St Mary’s we encourage you to get in touch with Jen Jobson, or Nicola Smith – dofe@st-marys.bucks.sch.uk

Pupil Testimonal
Overall, I have really enjoyed the Duke of Edinburgh experience and have gained resilience and leadership skills.
Katherine Year 10