A number of changes to the Duke of Edinburgh Award have recently taken place to allow students to continue with their award at home.
Non-completion of a section
If students haven’t fully completed a section(s) – and don’t think it is possible to complete a section(s) due to current lockdown restrictions – then their DOFE can now be done at home.
In short:
- Volunteering – Students can now undertake volunteering hours to help their extended family.
- Physical – your daily walk or run can count as a new physical activity (just record your walk/runs on strava/mapmyrun app)
- If you can’t undertake a section, then you can change your section and count previous hours as well as any future time spent on the new activity. This would require the student to have two assessor reports.
- Note: that family members cannot be an assessor for a student. If students require to undertake a new activity to allow them to complete their DOFE then they should make Mr Boag aware. It is likely that your new assessor will be one of the DOFE staff within school.
DOFE Messages
Can I highlight to all students the messaging system within eDOFE. The DOFE Manager has sent all students an important message highlighting the changes above and also two social media accounts that may be of interest:
Messages can be accessed by logging into your eDOFE account and looking at the top right-hand corner of the screen (See image below. Image taken while accessing eDOFE using a laptop)
Social Media Accounts
I would urge all DOFE students to follow the two social media accounts below:
- DOFE Facebook account – DOFE EastRen is East Renfrewshire’s DOFE account. This will be updated regularly with all changes that are taking place, but also some fun and mindfulness techniques that may relieve some boredom (even for a while).
- Instagram account – CLDEastRen brings together a number of services within East Renfrewshire (formerly Young Persons Services & the Communities Team)
Expeditions
Normally, DOFE expeditions take place in June and September. With current social distancing rules in place, it is not possible to have students out on any DOFE expeditions. Having discussed this at length with the DOFE Manager, it is likely that current S3 DOFE students will complete their expeditions in June/Sept 2021. I will make students aware should this change.
Finally
Most S3 DOFE students should have photo/text evidence that they can upload to their eDOFE accounts. If students have completed a section, then they should contact their assessor and ask for a report. Students should encourage their assessor to complete their report online by following this process:
- Ask your assessor to access the DOFE Assessor’s website.
- Students should give their assessor their DOFE ID number (student’s unique seven-digit number), their level (Bronze) and the section (physical, skill or volunteering)
Assessor’s can then type their report into the website and submit it to me for approval.
As ever, if students need further advice or guidance, then please get in touch using the DOFE Google Classroom.
Mr Boag
DOFE Coordinator