The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) is a world-renowned youth achievement programme that challenges and supports young people to enhance their skills, build character, serve their community and develop leadership qualities.

Each award is divided into four sections: Volunteering, Physical, Skills, and Expedition. The Gold Award also includes the Residential section. Each section encourages personal growth and helps participants to build a wide range of valuable life skills.

• Volunteering: Give time to help others and make a positive impact in the community
• Physical: Improve fitness and well-being by taking part in a sport or physical activity
• Skills: Develop a new talent or enhance an existing one, such as learning a musical instrument, cooking, or coding
• Expedition: Embark on an adventurous journey, learning to plan, train for, and complete an outdoor expedition, testing resilience and teamwork
• Residential: Gold Award participants only will spend a total of 5 days and 4 nights working with other young people on a project of their choosing to deliver a tangible benefit to a community or project, or to challenge themselves to build new, valuable skills

Completing a DofE Award is a highly rewarding experience and it can give students a real competitive edge when applying for university or jobs, as it demonstrates commitment, perseverance and a willingness to challenge themselves. 

At SuMS we offer all students the opportunity to participate in the DofE Award scheme, whether or not they’ve participated previously. Our students start on either the Silver or Gold level, dependent upon their previous experience. We encourage as many students as possible to participate by supporting them to explore a wide range of activities, across all sections of the award. Whether it’s leading a school club, volunteering in a local primary school, or developing further a skill that they are passionate about, there really is something for everyone.

We also provide a full expedition experience, working in partnership with School of Outdoors, our AAP (Authorised Activity Provider). This includes a training day at school, a practice expedition and a qualifying expedition for both Silver and Gold Award participants. These expeditions are not only a key part of the DofE Award but also form a memorable and bonding experience for all participants.

There is a registration cost to join the DofE Award scheme, and additional costs related to the Expedition section. However, we offer support in the form of kit loan and in some cases financial support, to ensure that as many SuMS students as possible can take part.