Duke of Edinburgh award

The Duke of Edinburgh award is an internationally recognised award which aims to provide students with the opportunity to challenge themselves beyond the classroom and become the very best they can be. Our aim at Windsor Girls’ School is to provide all our students with the opportunity to complete a bespoke programme over the course of the award, where they can develop their resilience and teamwork skills as well as gain essential skills needed later in life. More information on the award can be found on their website https://www.dofe.org

We are delighted here at Windsor Girls’ School to be able to offer all three levels of the Duke of Edinburgh award, Bronze, Silver and Gold to students in Year 9 – 13. In 2022, for the first time, we are proudly working with School of Outdoors to provide our final assessed expedition. The training and practise expeditions, will continue to be run in-house. At Silver, we continue to run the programme in house and are delighted to have some of our highest numbers in 2022 with nearly 30 students from Years 11 and 12 taking part. For the Gold Award, we partner with The Windsor Boys School and an external provider, Adventure Plus, to help deliver the award.

In 2021, we had the privilege in being part of a memorial for the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, at the Reading Minster where two of our Gold students spoke to a large crowd about how the Duke of Edinburgh Award has impacted their lives. They were alongside speakers of high military rankings and OBEs and presented the school brilliantly.

We have a handful of wonderful student ambassadors and two of them, Ellie Smith and Vivienne Alija, have written the following of their DofE experience:

DofE for us has been absolutely amazing from start to finish. It has played an important role in our lives as a young adults, not only because of the friends and memories that we made but also the experience that we have had and the confidence that it has given us. DofE has made us appreciate the real beauty of our world through the breath-taking views we experienced as part of the expeditions. The expeditions have to be some of the most memorable and rewarding part of DofE due to the sheer determination and resilience it takes to complete our journey. Each expedition was phenomenal, especially when we progressed to Gold due to the stunning scenery and exhilarating feeling we shared knowing that we had completed our route! The Gold DofE also provided us with the amazing opportunity to spend a week outdoors as part of our residential. Through this we learnt many life skills such as achieving our first aid and lifesaving qualification. Overall, DofE has been one of the most amazing achievements that we have ever done and would highly recommend it to anyone. It is inclusive, challenging and independent, where there is no doubt that you will gain unique confidence and experience that you can take with you into your adult life.

Taking up a new skill, physical activity and volunteering role really helped to push us out of our comfort zones and try something new. For example, for our skills, in the past we have done cooking, driving and piano and for our physical taken part in sports clubs, ice skating and even something as simple as going on weekly walks! The volunteering opportunity is great experience for working in the real world, as well as helping out your local community.