Welcome to Patriot ESU DofE
What does the DofE involve?
To complete your DofE you must undertake several activities, one from each of the following categories: volunteering, physical, skill and expedition (plus the residential section at gold level only). Each activity should be completed for around one hour per week and you can complete them all at once or one after the other. See the diagram below which details how long you have to complete each activity and how old you have to be to start each level of the award:
You haven’t enrolled yet?
Download the DofE application form, bring the completed with payment to your next meeting.
You’ve enrolled, how to start?
Organising your DofE to make a good start is very important. Follow these instructions…
1. GET your activities sorted
Enrolled participants will automatically receive a Welcome Pack it has lots of useful details, so read it. Keep it safe as there are no spares available, you can download the contents here.
Check that your proposed activities count in the DofE rules, if you are unsure just ask us.
Stuck for ideas the pages below will be kept up-to-date with ideas for each section.
2. FIND an adult to be your Assessor for each section.
Before you start anything find a suitable adult (sorry, no family members) and ask them to be your Assessor. A suitable adult is someone suitable who is an expert or is qualified to help you develop in your chosen activity. They should be willing to monitor and assess your progress and they should write a comment at the end.
Show them the assessor guidance notes from your Welcome Pack which explains what they do. Agree with your Assessor how you will log evidence of progress e.g log of dates, a diary, portfolio, photos, certificates etc. Add details about what you agree with your Assessor to your eDofE section page.
You need to find an assessor for each section: Volunteering, Physical and Skill.
3. REGISTER your activities on eDofE
Download the eDofE app for your smartphone or login to the eDofE website on a computer or your smartphone. Add section details, dates and contact emails/numbers for all your Assessors.
Choose the correct time scales: for Bronze do one activity for 6 months, two others for 3 months (3mths / 3mths / 6mths); for Silver (having finished Bronze) this is (6mths / 6mths / 3mths) and then finally for Gold the timescales are (12mths / 12mths / 6mths).
Submit each activity for approval on eDofE (please don’t leave as draft).
Check your activities are approved, if they are queried it means something is wrong and won’t be accepted, so please sort this out with us as soon as you can.
4. START keep evidence of your regular participation
Start your activities and follow them regularly for an hour each week for the correct timescale. Some activities are more suitable to do for a longer session every few weeks which is ok but keep a diary. Whatever you do keep a log of dates and other evidence of your sessions and upload to eDofE either at the end or, better still, as you go along.
If you miss a week or two then this time must be added to the end. Keep a list of dates and build evidence of your participation so that you can add it into eDofE. Some activities take all day and cannot be done meaningfully in one hour a week. e.g. charity shop volunteering or wildlife conservation etc. You can do these for a day every other week, for example, and this arrangement will count towards your DofE. It must still be regular and over the full timescale.
Activities completed within school lesson time DO NOT count towards DofE, but training and clubs at lunchtime and after school DO count. Ask if not sure.
Record your regular participation on these Activity Logs and use this information along with photographs.
Digital copies of the Welcome Packs
DofE participants are sent Welcome Packs, the pack contains ‘doing your DofE’ information, Assessors’ Cards, leaflets for parents and carers, discount information and offers, and a DofE Card. Digital copies of the Welcome Packs are available below, for those whose packs do not arrive within 2-3 weeks of their eDofE account being activated.