Duke of Edinburgh Award

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

The Award is a programme of activities for you to do in your spare time. There are three Awards to try for: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

You simply have to choose one activity under each of these headings, and do it for a set length of time:

Volunteering: helping someone, your community or the environment.
Skills: developing existing talents or trying something new.
Physical: becoming fitter through sport, dance or fitness activities.
Expedition: planning, training for and completing an adventurous journey.
Residential: (this is for Gold Award Participants only) staying and working away from home as part of a team.

For a full list of the programmes available under each section click on the Duke of Edinburgh website link at the bottom of this page.

(It's important to remember that things you're already involved in, in your spare time, can count towards your Duke of Edinburgh Award, e.g. Girls' Brigade, sports clubs or teams, hobby and interest clubs, music lessons or bands, so you don't have to ditch all your current interests and take up new ones you can just set yourself targets to extend and challenge you in your current interests. ... So if you already help out with your GB Explorer section, you're in the school hockey team, and you play an instrument or do crafts ... be sure to register all those activities with your D of E leader a.s.a.p. and start counting them towards your Award, you'll be half way there before you know it!)

WHO CAN TAKE PART?

The Award is targeted at everyone in the 14 - 25 age group.

Which level of the award you tackle first depends on your age, if you are in your teens just start with Bronze and work your way up, if you're older you may prefer to enter the Award at Direct Silver or even Direct Gold, (Direct Silver is more involved than Silver on completion of the Bronze Award and likewise with Direct Gold), see the entry requirements & timescales below for more details:

BRONZE AWARD

Minimum age you can start the Bronze Award:	Your 14th Birthday (However if you have a late birthday and others in your school year (S3) are 14 already, the GB as an operating authority allows you to begin just below this age, so you can do your Award with your peers. )
Minimum time to complete the Bronze Award:	6 months
Minimum age to complete the Bronze Award:	14½ years
Maximum age to complete the Bronze Award:	24 years + 364 days! (you get an extra day if its a leap year!) All Awards must be completed before your 25th birthday, so don't take too long or you won't have time to finish the Silver and Gold!
TIMESCALE FOR THE BRONZE SECTION OF THE AWARD
VOLUNTEERING	SKILLS	PHYSICAL	EXPEDITIONS
3 months	3 months	3 months	Plan, prepare for and undertake a 2 day, 1 night venture
ALL PARTICIPANTS must undertake a further 3 months in either the Volunteering, or Skills, or Physical Section.

SILVER AWARD

Minimum age you can start the Silver Award:	Your 15th Birthday (However if you have completed the Bronze Award, the GB as an operating authority allows you to begin just below this age, so you can continue without a long gap. )
Minimum time to complete the Silver Award:	6 months if you have completed the Bronze Award 12 months for Direct Silver
Minimum age to complete the Silver Award:	15½ years if you have completed the Bronze Award 16 years for Direct Silver
Maximum age to complete the Silver Award:	24 years + 364 days! (you get an extra day if its a leap year!) All Awards must be completed before your 25th birthday, so don't take too long or you won't have time to finish the Gold!
TIMESCALE FOR THE SILVER SECTION OF THE AWARD
VOLUNTEERING	SKILLS	PHYSICAL	EXPEDITIONS
6 months	One Section for 6 months and the other section for 3 months		Plan, prepare for and undertake a 3 day, 2 night venture
DIRECT ENTRANTS must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Skills or Physical Sections.

GOLD AWARD

Minimum age you can start the Gold Award:	Your 16th Birthday - no activities may be counted for this Award before this age.
Maximum age you can start the Gold Award:	Your 23rd Birthday - to ensure you have time to complete the Award before your 25th Birthday.
Minimum time to complete the Gold Award:	12 months if you have completed the Silver Award 18 months for Direct Gold
Minimum age to complete the Gold Award:	17 years if you have completed the Silver Award 17½ years for Direct Gold
Maximum age to complete the Gold Award:	24 years + 364 days! (you get an extra day if its a leap year!) All awards must be completed before your 25th birthday, so don't take too long!
Extensions are only considered where illness, accident or unavoidable circumstances makes this impossible, in which case requests are referred by the Operating Authority (GB HQ) to the National Award Office for consideration.
TIMESCALE FOR THE GOLD SECTION OF THE AWARD
VOLUNTEERING	SKILLS	PHYSICAL	EXPEDITIONS	RESIDENTIAL
12 months	One Section for 12 months and the other section for 6 months		Plan, prepare for and undertake a 4 day, 3 night venture	Undertake a shared activity in a residential setting away from home for 5 days and 4 nights
DIRECT ENTRANTS must undertake a further 6 months in either the Volunteering or the longer of the Skills or Physical Sections.
GB & BB DUKE OF EDINBURGH OPEN GOLD EXPEDITION - These have been set up to help those of you in Companies who do not have a viable group to do a Gold Expedition on your own, ie less than four. However, if space allows, larger groups are accommodated - see D of E Courses for more info.

SOUNDS GREAT, WHERE DO I SIGN UP & WHEN CAN I START?

... just 3 easy steps

Tell your GB Leader or Captain you want to do The Duke of Edinburgh Award, and ask them to get you a Girls' Brigade, Duke of Edinburgh Award Registration Form (available from GB HQ and through the Useful Documents - on the Leader's page on this website) ... if your Company have never done the D of E Award before, then don't let your Leaders panic, GB HQ & your Division's D of E Co-ordinator will keep them straight on all they need to know to help you through.

Check out the D of E website (link at the bottom of this page) so you can start thinking about which programmes you'd like to tackle.

Complete the Girls' Brigade, Duke of Edinburgh Award Registration Form and send it back to GB HQ with the correct fee for your Entrance pack, which includes your record book. (See D of E Leaders' page for more details)

......... well, what are you waiting for, choose what you're going to do ... and get started!

I'M TOO OLD FOR THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD! ... WHAT CAN I DO?

Lots, life doesn't stop at 25!

You're never too old to get involved and help girls and young women in Girls' Brigade broaden their horizons with the Duke of Edinburgh Award ... and all the while you'll be broadening your own! Check out the D of E Leaders' Page through the link below to find out all the options open to you.

USEFUL WEBSITE LINKS FOR THE EXPEDITION SECTION

www.outdooraccess-scotland.com Know the Code before you go - and respect the land your walking over and the people working on it.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk Everything you could ever want to know about maps - including how to read them!

www.ramblers.org.uk
With advice on walks, equipment, map reading and outdoor safety.

www.cyclingscotland.org

www.cycle-n-sleep.co.uk

What about an Expedition on bicycle rather than on foot? A couple of useful websites with cycling safety advice and details of national cycling routes.

ATTENTION ALL DUKE OF EDINBURGH PARTICIPANTS: If you're walking over farm land and eating out of doors on your Expedition, (and who isn't?), then this affects YOU! Make sure you understand the risks of E. coli O157 and the simple precautions you can take to avoid it. Just read this leaflet. (click on the picture to open the pdf document link)

For more information visit www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent and enter 'E. coli' in the keyword search

Fri 16 July 2010

DUKE OF EDINBURGH GOLD AWARD PRESENTATION 2010

Palace of Holyrood House

N.B. If your Gold Award is nearing completion and you wish to be included at next years Award Presentation in July, completed books MUST be received by GB HQ for processing by 15 March 2010 at the latest.

Any queries, please contact Hazel at GB HQ

	Girls' Brigade, Duke of Edinburgh, Leaders' Page
	Girls' Brigade, Duke of Edinburgh, Trainings & Qualificaions

(Page checked & updated 25/05/10)

Any problems with, or comments about, this website please click on this link and e-mail GB Scotland

USEFUL WEBSITE LINKS FOR THE EXPEDITION SECTION
www.outdooraccess-scotland.com	Know the Code before you go - and respect the land your walking over and the people working on it.
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk	Everything you could ever want to know about maps - including how to read them!
www.ramblers.org.uk	With advice on walks, equipment, map reading and outdoor safety.
www.cyclingscotland.org www.cycle-n-sleep.co.uk	What about an Expedition on bicycle rather than on foot? A couple of useful websites with cycling safety advice and details of national cycling routes.