Plan your DofE Award activity choices
You’ll need
- A4 paper
- Pens or pencils
- Scissors
- Sticky tack
- Printer (optional)
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Before you begin
- Write the following words on separate pieces of paper: Skill, Physical, Volunteering and Expedition. Cut them up and stick one on each wall of your meeting place. If people are working towards their Gold award, remember to include the Residential element too.
- Create a list of activities, skills, volunteering opportunities and expedition examples for this activity. Take a look at some DofE ideas.
Play the game
- Ask everyone to gather in the middle of your meeting place. Explain that this game will help them to understand how different activities and skills can fit within the different areas of their Duke of Edinburgh’s award.
- Explain that you’ll read out an activity and they need to choose where it fits within the areas by going to the sign that they feel best fits the activity or skill. Remind everyone that it’s their own personal choice as to which sign they go to, but to also remember that there could be more than one right answer as things can overlap.
- When everyone is ready, read out the first activity or skill.
- When everyone is by a sign, ask for some people to explain their reasons for choosing the area that they’re in.
- Keep repeating this activity, until the whole list has been read out.
Planning your activity choices
- Gather back together in a circle.
- Ask everyone if there were any surprising activities.
- Give everyone a piece of paper and ask them to write down some ideas that they might choose for each section.
- Ask everyone to think of some of the activities they do in Scouts that could be excellent activities to choose. It might be something you do regularly or something they enjoyed and want to do more of. For example, climbing, cooking or kayaking.
- Ask if anyone does any activities outside of Scouts that they could use. Think of some hobbies outside of school that people might already take part in, such as sports, fitness training, playing musical instruments and gaming. All of these activities can be used as part of their award, as long as they can show progression.
- Remind everyone that doing the Top Awards is also an excellent time to try something new. They can also be the perfect way for a young person to take something they already do more seriously and plan how to get better at it, or it may be a good excuse for them to do something they’ve always wanted to have a go at safely.
- At the end, ask if anyone wants to share the choices they’ve made for each section with the group. It’s okay if people want to keep it private.
Running
- Physical Section, from running in an event or as exercise
- Volunteering Section, from helping at a local running event, such as a marathon or ParkRun
Tennis
- Volunteering Section if they help at a local club. They need to do module A for the first level and some additional training at each subsequent level
- Physical Section, as this is a physical activity
- Skill Section, such as racket control, the study of tennis players or types of kit
Horse riding
- Skill Section from learning to looking after a horse
- Physical Section by riding a horse
Climbing
- Physical Section from climbing at a local wall
- Skill Section from learning about different types of kit and kit maintenance
Playing in a band
- Skill Section from playing an instrument in a band
- Volunteering Section by helping with an organisation and teaching others
Cooking and baking
- Skill Section from cooking safely, using kitchen equipment, and learning different techniques or recipes
- Volunteering Section from helping at a local food bank
Helping at a charity shop
- Volunteering Section by helping in a local charity shop, helping with social media or doing administration
Helping at an animal shelter
- Volunteering Section by helping with the animals. However, please note that the DofE does not let you volunteer with a business, so this would not count unless not for profit, for example Blue Cross or PDSA.
School club
- Clubs must be in non-directed time, for example after school
- Skill Section from clubs where you learn a skill
- Physical Section in clubs where you take part in a form of sport or exercise
- Volunteering Section from helping with a club or in a school library
Gymnastics
- Physical Section from taking part in exercise
- Volunteering Section if you’re helping, such as at a younger group’s lesson
Swimming
- Physical Section from taking part in exercise
Reading
- Volunteering Section from helping young people learn to read, running a book club or in a school library
Photography
- Skill Section from learning how to take photos or edit photos
- Volunteering Section from taking photos for a local charity, such as animal photos for animal shelter
First aid
- Skill Section from learning first aid
- Volunteering Section from helping being a trained and qualified first aider, such as with St John's Ambulance
Being a young leader
- Volunteering Section if you’re helping, such as at a younger group’s lesson
Reflection
Seeing how and where some activities that you might already do fit into the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award can sometimes be a bit difficult. This exercise helped you to see how lots of different activities can be used across multiple skills sections, and perhaps it showed you how your activities can fit into sections of the award you didn’t think of.
Is there an activity that you already take part in that now fits into an area you didn’t expect? For example, if you take part in a sport, you might have thought it just fits into your Physical Section, but now see that it can also be part of the Skills Section or Volunteer Section.
This activity might have also helped you to discover new skills or activities that you could take part in. Were there any that interested you that you didn’t think of before? How do you think learning these new skills could help you in your personal life? Think about new skills, such as learning sign language, and how that could support you at school, in college or even as a career.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Scissors
Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.
To make it easier or harder, consider giving more or less detail when reading out the suggested activities or skills to help people choose.
- For anyone who may not be able to move around your meeting place easily, think about creating a sign for each area that people can hold up to show their choice.
- For anyone who may not be able to hear the activities, consider printing them a version that they can read at the same time.
- For anyone who may not be able to read the words on the walls clearly, consider making the words larger or using a different colour for each area. You could also let them work closely with someone who can help to guide them to their choice.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.