The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award
Four sections. Two expeditions. Three levels of an award recognised in more than 130 countries. The climb starts in Grade 8 and ends with a Gold pin and a very different young person wearing it.
Altitude 0 m
There are no winners or losers. Only personal goals set, pursued and achieved. Across four sections, pupils learn to push themselves, contribute to others and grow in ways that stay with them long after the certificate is framed.
The Award was shaped in 1956 by the educator Kurt Hahn and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on a simple conviction: every young person carries more courage, more strength and more compassion than they realise, and the right kind of challenge brings it to the surface. The school has run the Award since 2019. Today more than 250 pupils are working through Bronze, Silver and Gold.
The four sections
Every level asks for progress across all four at once, a minimum of one hour a week each. Three are chosen by the pupil. The fourth is chosen for them.
Give time to something that matters. Coaching, animal care, environmental work, supporting the elderly. The contribution has to be real, and the goal is set with an assessor at the start.
Commit to a sport or activity and get measurably better at it. Swimming, football, martial arts, dance. It can be something the pupil already does, as long as the progress shows.
Learn something. An instrument, a language, code, cooking, photography. Whatever genuinely interests them, pursued consistently and evidenced in the online record book.
The part they remember longest. A self sufficient expedition in a natural environment: on foot, navigating as a team, carrying everything. A practice journey first, then the qualifying one.
* Not optional. Every level ends with one.
400 m
Your first step. Bigger than you think.
Bronze is where it begins: setting a personal goal, sticking to it and finding out what they are made of when it gets hard. Demanding but absolutely achievable, and most pupils who start Bronze finish it. Registration opens each Term 3 for the following year.
1,200 m
More distance. More challenge.
Silver raises the bar across every section: longer commitments, an alpine expedition and the expectation that the pupil is now driving their own journey. By this point they know how the programme works. Silver is about what they do with that. By invitation on completing Bronze.
2,400 m
The summit. Earned, not given.
One of the most respected youth achievements in the world. Gold adds a fifth element, the Residential Project: five days living and working with strangers on a shared purpose, away from home. Universities know what a Gold Award took. Admissions tutors notice, and so does everyone who meets the pupil afterwards.
Expeditions
Every pupil completes two expeditions at each level: a practice journey, where mistakes are allowed and expected, then the qualifying journey, which is the real thing. All of them self propelled and self sustained. Pupils carry everything, navigate their own route and make their own decisions in the field.
No pupil arrives at an expedition unprepared. Navigation, camp craft, team dynamics, kit management, first aid awareness and route planning are woven into the weekly programme through the year. By the practice expedition they have the tools. By the qualifying expedition they have the confidence.
Expeditions run with outstanding providers led by qualified mountain guides, and a wilderness trained first aider is always nearby. Supervision matches the level. At Bronze staff have eyes on every group while giving them room to navigate and decide. By Gold it is remote, but the school always knows exactly where every pupil is, with tracking between checkpoints.
Pupils with medical conditions are warmly encouraged to take part. Every condition is declared and discussed with the coordinator well in advance, adjustments are made where they can be, and all medication, including over the counter medicines, is held by the Award Leader in the field.
"There is more in you than you think."
DofE and the IB
The Award and the International Baccalaureate share more than values. They share an origin. Both were built on the conviction that education is about far more than what can be examined, and that the most important growth happens when young people are challenged, stretched and asked to contribute.
Here, DofE activity counts towards the Diploma's CAS requirement and sits inside the MYP's Service as Action strand. Beyond the paperwork, the Award builds the Learner Profile the hard way: principled, caring, balanced, reflective and a risk taker, through experience rather than theory.
Registration
The DofE Coordinator
Contact details are on the school's own website.
Registration for the next Bronze cohort is open until the end of Term 3.