Welcome to the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen's Badge page. This page will give you detailed information on the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Queen's Badge and see what they require and involve.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award
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The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) is an award scheme offered to 14-25 year olds which involves taking part in a range of activities to learn or develop a range of skills, many which will be useful in later life. A participant is required to take part in one activity from each of the following sections:
Skills - discovering new hobbies and interests, or improving ones you already do.
If you need any ideas for what you might want to do, click on the categories to open a PDF document which will list some suggestions.
A participant is also expected to take part in an expedtion. More information about expeditions are provided below.
The DofE has three levels which can be worked at and achieved. These are known as Bronze, Silver and Gold. Bronze being the easiest to achieve and Gold being the hardest. They all require you to complete the 4 sections but you are expected to work at these for a longer period of time as you progress through the levels. Unfortunately though, there are age limits. For Bronze you must be 14 years old, for Silver you must be 15 and Gold you must be 16 or older.
When doing your DofE, you will be required to log when you do activities in your Record Book and it will be expected that you get your assessor in your section areas to sign each log you make. This proves you have done the activities when it comes to your DofE being assessed. |
 Bronze |
Skills | Physical Recreation | Community Service | Expedition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 3 months | 3 months | Plan, train for and complete an expedition for 2 days and 1 night plus one night briefing | |
| You must undertake 3 months extra in either Skills, Physical Recreation or Community Service. | ||||
 Silver |
Skills | Physical Recreation | Community Service | Expedition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One section for 3 months and the other for 6 months | 6 months | Plan, train for and complete an expedition for 3 days and 2 nights plus one night briefing | ||
| Direct entrants to the Silver award must either do an extra 6 months of Community Service or an extra six months on longer activity out of Skills or Physical Recreation. | ||||
 Gold |
Skills | Physical Recreation | Community Service | Expedition | Residential |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One section for 6 months and the other for 12 months | 12 months | Plan, train for and complete an expedition for 4 days and 3 nights plus one night briefing | Undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days 4 nights | ||
| Direct entrants to the Gold award must either do an extra 6 months of Community Service or an extra six months on longer activity out of Skills or Physical Recreation. | |||||
To find out more information about the Duke of Edinburgh Award, click here to visit their website.
Queen's Badge
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The Queen's Badge is an award offered by the Boys' Brigade which is equvilant to the DofE Silver Award. It is available for Seniors who have completed their President's Badge and who are 16 years old. The difference between the DofE Silver and the Queen's Badge is that the Queen's Badge has a particular aim of developing a boy's leadership skills, particulary within the Boys' Brigade.
As well as completing the Physical Recreation, Skills, Community Service and Expedition sections, a boy doing his Queen's Badge is also expected to take some form of leadership within their Company and to attend certain conferences and residentials to further their understanding about leadership and the BB.
The Queen's Badge cannot be completed in less than 12 months and it is recommended a boy spends 12 months on the award. A participate must also aim for a date when a completion course takes place which they must attend to complete their Queen's Badge.
A candidate doing his Queen's Badge recieves a red folder which they are supposed to fill in through the time they do their award. They must comment on what they do and have learnt and like the DofE must log activities. For boys currently completing the old Queen's Badge course, they must also answer six questions provided in the folder to provoke thought about what they have learnt by doing the various activities. It is also strongly encouraged for a candidate to add extra sheets to show what they have done with photographs, news cuttings and others memoirs to make an impressive folder.
Each Battalion should have a Queen's Badge Advisor which can help boys on the course with any problems or issues that arise when doing the award. They will also be there to check at times where a candidate is up to in his award. Our current advisor is Bob Tolmie.
If a boy is taking part in the DofE Silver award, then the sections completed for that award can count for Queen's Badge but they must be done at the same time to one another. |
Expeditions
Expeditions are a very important part of completing your Duke of Edinburgh and Queen's Badge awards. Recently, new regulations have been brought in to ensure expeditions are being conducted properly. This section will provide you with some advice for doing your Expeditions.
For an Expedition, you must be in a group of either 4 to 7 people (if you are canoeing, a group of 8 people is recommended). An expedition can be completed on Foot, by Bike, Canoeing, Kayaking, Sailing, by Wheelchair, Horse-riding or even riding a llama! It can also be done anywhere in the country that is unfamiliar and meets the challenges that are required. At Bronze level, the challenge is not as demanding but as you approach Gold, you will be expected to complete your expedition within areas like remote Wild Country.
Within your team, you are expected to plan the expedition through choosing a location, planning a route, producing a route card and preparing a menu and kit list needed for the expedition. This will be required for both your practice expedition and your qualifying expedition. An external assessor must be present for the qualifying expedition and must be provided with your plans ideally 6 weeks in advance - this will be arranged by one of the leaders. You are also expected to choose a topic for the expedition which you will research for the duration of when you do it - this is very important and will be monitored by assessors.
An Expedition usually takes these 5 steps:
1.Preparation – You need to research what you want to do, who you’re going to do it with and how you’re going to travel and what you’re going to study or achieve on route, then agree it with your Leader. At each level the environment you visit gets tougher and there are few other conditions your journey should match.
2. Training – You need to make sure you’re trained in your mode of travel and have completed the Expedition Training Framework.
3. Practice Expedition – You must do enough practice to ensure you can travel safely and complete your qualifying expedition. Silver and Gold practice expeditions must include at least 2 consecutive nights away.
4. Qualifying expedition, debrief and presentation – the best bit – actually doing it! You must go on your journey, observed by an accredited DofE Assessor. Your Assessor will debrief the team and you will need to prepare and give a presentation on your aims and experiences.
5. Assessment – To complete your DofE programme you must meet your Assessor to talk about what you’ve done and make sure they sign it off.
Tips for doing Expeditions
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Ensure that you pack as lightly as possible. Try and avoid taking items you may not really need.
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Make sure you prepare a filling menu that is also not too heavy to carry. A meal like Pasta and Tomato sauce is an excellent meal as it is filling and can be carried lightly. Avoid carrying meat and try to incorporate a pudding into the meal where possible
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Distribute the weight as evenly as possible and always ensure the heaviest stuff is in the top of the bag to avoid hurting your back.
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When working out your routecard, try to work to a 4km/hr rule (15 mins per km) and leave 15 mins for every 100 metres climed.
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Leave plenty of time for breaks but ensure you are walking for the mininum required time or over.
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In summer, make sure you have plenty of water (mininum of 2 litres) and suncream.
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If you are doing your expedition in late September/October or times of cold and bad weather, ensure you have waterproofs and windproof clothing (the wind can be the greatest cause of heat loss).
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It is very important you have proper walking boots, trainers will not support your feet. If you need a pair, contact Mr Welch.
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Before going on your expedition, ensure you have everything you will need and check with your group members if they have too so not to run into any problems.
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Mobiles must not be used at leisure under new DofE rules. One group member is permitted a phone which is to be switched off at the bottom of their rucksack.
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Make sure your rucksack is suitable for the journey. If you need to borrow one, ask Mr Welch or Mr Quigley for assistance.
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Enjoy the Expedition and try and have fun but keep on top of what you are doing.
Below are some resources which you can use to help you plan your expedition and give you an idea of what you want to do for it. Some of these resources (indicated by the red symbol next to them) are in a PDF format. If you do not have PDF reading software, then click on one of the red symbols to download a free version of Adobe Reader.
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Suggested Kit List | |
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Expedition Planner | |
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Route Card |