Duke of Edinburgh

Adventure. Friends. Life Skills. Laughs. Adrenaline.

Andover Community Church (formerly Andover Baptist Church) has been operating as an open Duke of Edinburgh award centre for 15 years and will be running in 2024/25 Bronze, Silver and Gold programs.

We try and balance fun, learning practical navigation skills, planning trips safely and the pressure of exams. The programme is designed fit in with year 10, 11, 12 and 13 exams. We will have to flexible as we come out of Covid as to when we are allowed to do training.

Why do your Duke of Edinburgh award?

• As leaders we see young people transformed and become confident and believing in themselves
• We see them develop team skills that will last them a life time in all areas of their working and social life
• The young people leave the scheme with the skills to plan walking, canoeing and camping trips anywhere in the country and be safe
• Employers see D of E on young people’s CVs and know what it stands for

For Bronze you need to be 14+, minimum year 10. For Silver you need to be 15+, minimum year 11. For Gold you need to be 16+, minimum year 12.

The Bronze and Silver D of E programme have 4 sections, Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition. The Gold programme has 5 sections, Volunteering, Physical, Skills, Expedition and Residential.

The mode of transport will be walking for Bronze and Silver in 2024/25 with the practice and final expeditions for Bronze in Hampshire and Silver we hope to go to Exmore and Dartmoor respectively but this will depend on the amount of training we can do with Covid. The mode of transport for Gold in 2024/25 is canoeing with practice on local canals and final on the Wye.

The group meets every other Monday starting in September at Andover Community Church, Charlton Road, SP10 3TB.

The fees are:

• Bronze £140
• Silver £350
• Gold £450

The fees include registration for the award and access to tents, cookers, gas, ruck sacks, canoes, buoyancy aids, camping fees, transport (Silver and Gold) and assessor’s fees. We do not want money to be a barrier and stop anyone from doing the award, so if money is difficult, please contact me (Simon Mason, Centre Coordinator, simondofe.abc@gmail.com) and we will work with you to sort out the funding.