Duke of Edinburgh Award

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is the world’s leading youth achievement award, giving millions of 13 to 24 year olds the opportunity to step outside their comfort zone and expand their skill set. The award is a great way for the centre to help young people become more independent with the skills that they learn from the outdoor training and assessed expeditions they participate which develops leadership & Life skills.

There are a number of skills within the training phase to prepare the young people for assessment including first aid and emergency procedures, risk and health & safety, navigation and route planning, preparatory map skills, practical map skills, compass skills, camp craft, equipment & hygiene, food & cooking, countryside code and finally team building and working as a group to succeed.

The way we work the DofE at Shadwell usually incorporates a couple of lessons prior to the main Training phase which is a 5 day trip including a two day residential which includes classroom based lessons covering the modules/skills mentioned above and a two night camp where the young people walk their planned route of their Practice Expedition planned route.

Duke of Edinburgh Group in their wet weather gear stand behind their rucksacks

Our Bronze and Silver Training expeditions are based around Castleton or Edale in the Peak District, usually on week one of the Easter Holidays and the Assessed Expedition is in July usually the first week of the Summer Holidays and take place in the Lake District.

In the same year as the expeditions there are three other sections of the award to complete over a 3 or 6 months period in your own time, these include Skill, Physical and Volunteering all of which can be completed at Shadwell or another organisation of your choice.

Shadwell Basin have been running a Duke of Edinburgh programme for our regular youth members for the last five years and have a high pass rate for the borough

Duke of Edinburgh group look at their map

If you are a regular member of Shadwell Basin and you are interested in DofE please contact Will on: 020 7481 4210 to express your interest or by email on: mailto:will.tytler@shadwell-basin.org.uk