New Students September 2026

DofE is about developing transferable skills in teamwork, communication and empowering and challenging young people to have a positive impact on their local community. If you are brand new to DofE, then please spend some time browsing www.dofe.org to decide if it’s right for you. 

The DofE Award is optional and you have until your 25th birthday to complete all four (five for Gold) sections. DofE is designed to be challenging, most students gain a lot from taking part and have a lot of fun.

Because timetables are created at the start of the academic year, it’s important that if you do want to do DofE with us, you get your sign up at enrolment correct. There’s a high chance it won’t be possible to add DofE to your timetable if you change your mind after you have enrolled, and you need to speak with your tutor to see if it's possible.

The College will support expeditions, and provide advice on the other sections, but students are responsible for organising their own skills, volunteering, physical, and (for Gold) residential sections. It is up to each individual student to take responsibility for progressing and completing their Award - especially to find assessors for the sections, approach them and manage the reports. 

Each participant has a DofE session on their timetable once per week. These sessions are compulsory and contribute to your overall attendance record, however only about half of the lessons are used throughout the year and where they are not used for DofE, they are  available as extra study periods.

College provides one opportunity per year to undertake an expedition and the dates and costs of these are in this pack. The Silver expedition is designed to be accessible to all students, but the Gold is physically and mentally challenging, and students should prepare for this. Most participants want to do the expeditions organised by the College, however every year some students choose to make other plans through other providers, for which they take responsibility.

Our Expeditions are phone free zones and work on a No-News-Is-Good-News-Basis.   

Our aim is to provide Award support and the expedition package to all those who choose to take it up, and this has been possible so far. However numbers are growing, and if the number of those wanting to take part continue to increase it may not always be possible to support every student.  

If you want to do our Gold programme, then you need to have finished your Bronze, or have good hiking or trekking experience, perhaps through Scouts or similar. The Gold expedition has challenging hills and often challenging weather. Silver is designed to be accessible to anyone and it’s the right choice for  first timers, although students should be prepared as the weather can still be awful. Underestimating the challenge is a major reason why people drop out of the Gold expeditions.

If you’re doing DofE already at school, then you need to make sure your eDofE account is in order. Do that before the summer. You need to:

• Make sure you have a personal, not school, email account on eDofE

• Make sure you have a note of your eDofE number

• Make sure you can log into Mapping from eDofE

• Complete your existing DofE Award sections as much as possible, especially if your teachers are your assessors

• Finish your existing Award completely. Get as much signed off  as possible before you leave school.

You need to select DofE when you complete your College enrolment which takes place after you get your GCSE results.

Please note that you will need to make some payments in the very first week at College. There are instructions for this later as well as a timetable.

All the payments are made on Cristalweb, the College’s student facing system. Students  will be issued with login details at Induction.  Once you have enrolled at College with DofE on your choices, payment instructions will be sent.

By enrolling on a DofE Programme at College you are agreeing that the College may use the email addresses and other data we hold about you in administering the DofE Programme. This includes contacting parents / guardians and your previous DofE centre where necessary.

The College will use personal data on our systems when we create your profile on eDofE. This will include sharing your forename, surname, date of birth and email address with the DofE Charity via eDofE. We will use your email address and your parent / guardian email addresses to communicate with you and them about the Award programme in College whilst you are a student here and when you have left but your Award is still in progress.

Data in eDofE and information about DofE activities recorded in eDofE will be used by the DofE Charity, the Licensed Organisation and DofE centre to monitor and manage DofE participation and progress by young people and manage and support Leaders.  

The DofE Charity will use personal data to communicate useful and relevant information to either help participants complete a DofE programme, Leaders/LOs to run DofE programmes more effectively or help the DofE Charity to improve the quality and breadth of its programmes.  

We also send emails that contain information about the Charity, DofE negotiates privileged discounts and invites to events and other activities however if you would like to receive these emails you will need to opt in. Once you have opted-in to this you can opt out at any time by visiting www.dofe.org/preferences, or clicking the unsubscribe link that can be found at the bottom of all non-programme related email.

The College wants to support you if you want to do DofE but are financially constrained. Resources are limited of course, but please do apply for help, even if you don’t qualify for a bursary via  https://farnborough.ac.uk/supportingyou-financialassistance.

Historically there has always been some support available, even for those who do not qualify for the bursary. Please engage with the process at the link above as soon as possible.

If cashflow is a problem, the College has been able to offer interest free loans to enable payments to be made on time.

Please do NOT rush out and buy expensive outdoor equipment. Loans from friends and family are a good place to start, although care should be taken to ensure these fit properly. Decathlon appears to offer good value as well as Go-Outdoors and Millets. Once you have your DofE number you can access a discount in some stores.

Tents, stoves, fuel, maps and compasses are provided. We have a supply of rucksacks, sleeping bags and a few mats available to borrow.

Expeditions Wales are an approved activity provider (AAP) who deliver the Gold expedition section on our behalf. They have delivered high quality experiences to College students for over 10 years, and are in “loco parentis” during the expeditions. 

The College DofE team, composed of staff and volunteers deliver these expeditions. If demand is very high, then we may need to engage another AAP to do part of the expedition. We ensure that the student experience is the same, regardless of who manages their expedition. 

For expeditions in Wales organised by the College we travel by coach to the start of the expedition and home again from the finish point. This is included in the fee.  For more local trips we may ask for parents to drop off  and collect to save money. We try very hard to make sure we are good value because we know trips are expensive. 

No. Our Expeditions are a phone free environment, and for photographs and video recording you will need to bring a separate camera.

DofE expeditions are an opportunity for groups to be isolated and immersed in their activity and environment. Mobile phones should be carried for emergencies only, and we will expect them to be TURNED OFF. Parents should not expect to hear anything from students from start to finish. We will not confiscate phones, however one of the conditions for success is that the mobile phone policy is adhered to. Whilst singing is encouraged, music playing out is not. Earphones/Pods and battery chargers add weight and detract from the overall experience.

We only run one expedition for each level per year. We publish the dates as early as possible to facilitate decision making. We have celebrated a number of birthdays on expeditions. Sometimes injuries can raise challenges, and we will manage those on an individual basis, but please block out these dates in family diaries straight away.

Please remember dates can be +/- one day either way.

Expeditions are challenging in terms of location, duration, dependency and for some - mobile phone withdrawal! Injuries and fatigue do occur. Appropriate fitness, proper training, boots with ankle support, management of the weight of rucksacks, proper waterproof clothing alongside our comprehensive safety policies and experienced staff are in place to mitigate risk. However, there is a degree of risk and injuries do happen. Our policies are externally validated and the AAP’s are AALA licenced, further information can be found on this website https://www.hse.gov.uk/aala/