The Flagpole

Well done to those who have managed to sign off sections of their award despite current restrictions.  I have been delighted by the response, fantastic!  Lots of you have asked your assessor to submit an electronic report, excellent.

The continued priority should be to complete the physical, skill and volunteering sections.  The aim for all bronze and silver participants should be to sign these off before their qualifying trip.

Please refer to the attached electronic assessor report guide illustrating how you can get your award signed off during lockdown conditions. Click here for the guide.

This is a summary of the temporary changes DofE have introduced to help you complete on time:

• Participants can now volunteer for family members – e.g. mentoring or coaching younger siblings
• Participants can now change activities more than once – time spent on previous activities will still count.  You will need an assessor report for both activities though.
• Timescales - you can now choose to do your section activities less regularly, but for a longer period – so instead of doing an hour each week, you could think about doing two hours every other week if that fits better with your chosen activity.  The activity must still be spread across the number of months you’ve chosen to spend on that section but you could do 4 hours per month on one day. 

If you haven’t yet started one of your sections this is the perfect opportunity, the DofE requirements have never been more flexible!  The link below provides some example activities that can be completed at home.

https://www.dofe.org/dofewithadifference/activities

The DofE have also provided some useful FAQs for participants:

https://www.dofe.org/coronavirus/faqs-participants

It is also worth checking the opportunity finder if you’re still struggling for ideas:

https://www.dofe.org/opportunity-finder/opportunity-for-dofe-participant/

Here are some tips if you can’t find someone to be your assessor, though I’m sure Princethorpe Staff (for example your tutor) will happily help you out:

https://www.dofe.org/dofewithadifference/assessors

Well done to all DofE participants for their continued commitment to the scheme in the current climate.

Will Bower
Head of Outdoor Education – DofE Manager

We have formulated a plan regarding the bronze, silver and gold expeditions. Please refer to the recent email containing full details of the changes and next steps.

Please see below a basic summary of the dates. Whilst we hope to stick to these dates, government guidelines may mean we are forced to change the locations.

Will Bower
Head of Outdoor Education – DofE Manager