Welcome to The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme

Ever wanted to challenge yourself?

If you are between 14 - 25 and interested in doing something that takes you beyond the everyday, then the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme is for you. 
Basically, it is a program that you design based on your interests, and covers four key areas:

• Skills - anything from playing in a band to fashion design to film and video making.  You decide.
• Volunteering Service - choose your area of interest in the community, such as youth work, the environment or charity work, to name a few..
• Adventurous Journey - journey into an unfamiliar environment with a group, and challenge yourself.
• Physical Recreation - get out there and get sweating!  Dancing, adventure sports, ball sports, martial arts, the list goes on.

To get an Award, you just need to set yourself challenges and strive to reach these challenges.  The great thing about The Award is that it allows you to piggy-back onto activities you may already be doing, such as surf life saving, playing a sport or volunteering, and counting those towards your Award. 
There are three levels to the award, and they all take different lengths of time:

• Bronze takes about a year; you can start this level at 14 or over
• Silver takes about a year and a half; you can start this level at 15 or over
• Gold takes about two years; you can start this level at 16 or over

What do you get out of it?
Like so many things, you get out of it what you put in.  For example, if you really want to be in a band, you can use the skills section to focus on learning an instrument and for service you could volunteer at a community arts centre.  At the end of the program, not only could you get an Award, but you could also be well on the way to playing in a band for real.
Some of the greatest rewards include:

• Achieving something for yourself
• Becoming more confident
• Getting new skills
• Having some great experiences
• Making new friends
• Meeting people from around the world

Not to mention having a lot of fun in the process.

How it works at Killara High School

• Register for DoE Online Record Book
• http://www.dukeofed.com.au/resources/online-record-book/
• Choose your Skills, Physical Recreation and Volunteering Activities
• Get pre-Approval from the Killara High DoE School Coordinator Ms McCartney (Mathematics teacher)
• Find an appropriate Assessor for each activity. They  need a Working With Children Check and must be approved by the Killara Coordinator, Ms McCartney before you start

  http://www.dukeofed.com.au/resource/nsw-assessor-commencement-guide/

• Start your activities and log your hours on-line in your DoE Online Record Book

   

Any questions come and ask Ms McCartney in Mathematics or email me at

gill.mccartney@det.nsw.edu.au