Alleyne's Academy are very proud of our strong history of success with of DofE participants. Students learn responsibility, resilience, independence and motivation throughout their award, and thoroughly enjoy the experience. We have a strong completion rate, and love celebrating the students' success each year at our annual Award's Evening.
Please read below for more information about the award.
For any matters not explained by the content below, or if we can be of help in answering any questions, please feel free to eMail our DofE account on dofe@alleynes.staffs.sch.uk.
We currently offer Bronze (Year 9), Silver (Year 10) and Gold (Sixth Form – subject to numbers). The Award is split into 4 or 5 different sections (please see the graphics below). As a school, we will organise the expedition section for the students.
Students will be responsible for organising the other sections independently, however we will support them through this if needed. Alleyne’s Academy is not responsible for checking any external providers are appropriate (except for the provision of the expedition), and it is the responsibility of parents and carers to ensure that this is safe.
Students need to participate in voluntary work (this must be for a charitable organisation, not a private business), a physical activity and a skill for roughly an hour a week for the timelines shown above. Gold participants will also need to complete a residential activity.
Some of our current DofE participants have made astonishing contributions to the local community last year, contributing 2002 hours of voluntary service to the community, which is an amazing achievement, and really makes a difference to the local community. The social value of these hours is calculated to be a whopping £15,114.
More information can be found on the many ways in which these sections can be completed at https://www.dofe.org/do/ideas/. DofE allows for a wide range of activities for each section, some formally organised with others being able to be completed at home.
The dates for the expeditions are in their own section below, and unfortunately these cannot be changed – if you cannot commit to all of these weekends, then unfortunately your child will not be able to complete the award with us. The locations for the expeditions will be sent out closer to the time, for you to be able to organise drop-off/collection of the students.
To complete and track their award, Students, once registered, will need to log in to their eDofE account and submit their activities for approval (some activities might not be suitable/appropriate for the section, and activities must be approved in order for students to be covered through the Award Scheme’s Insurance).
Once approved, students can log their activities each week, so for example if they were to work on their fitness each week as their physical, they may upload a screenshot of runkeeper etc.
At the end of the section, students will then need to have their assessor complete an assessors’ report, and upload this to finish their section. We will be running a short information session on this on Wed 11th Nov, 2026.
e-DofE Information Evening
Wednesday 11th November 2026
Parents’ Information Evening for the Expeditions
Wednesday 24th March 2027
Bronze (Year 9) Dates
Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd May 2027 – Training Weekend
Saturday 22nd – Sunday 23rd May 2027 – Qualifying Weekend
Silver (Year 10) Dates
Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd May 2027 – Training Weekend
(Friday meet @ 9am for training)
Friday 18th – Sunday 20th June 2027 – Qualifying Weekend
(Friday meet @ 9am)
Gold (Year 12) Dates
To be confirmed – depending on numbers
The cost for registration and for the expeditions are as follows:
Payment Schedule
| Bronze | Silver | Gold | |
| 15/10/2026 | £100 | £200 | £200 |
| 15/12/2026 | £75 | £90 | £200 |
| 15/02/2027 | £50 | £75 | £155 |
| Total | £225 | £365 | £555 |
Part of the first payment will cover the student’s registration with DofE. Payments, other than the registration, are refundable only until such time as the Academy has to make payment to the supplier(s) providing external services. Once such payment has been invoiced, no refunds can be made. Payments should be made through ParentPay, and the students will be added to this once they have signed up for the Award.
In order to have a section 'signed off', an assessor's report must be completed.
The easiest way to do this is to complete the report online – this is the link: https://www.dofe.org/assessor/
Assessors will require a participant's eDofE number to complete the report.
Alternatively, assessors may fill in the card sent as part of the paper welcome pack when participants first registered for the DofE. A picture of the card will then need to be uploaded onto eDofE. This must be completed correctly, with all dates visible and correct, along with signatures, otherwise DofE will not accept this.
If either Mrs Plant or Dr Thomson is your assessor, you will need to prompt them to complete your report, as we complete hundreds of these each year. To do this, please send an email to dofe@alleynes.staffs.sch.uk with the following information:
Mobile phones during expedition will only be allowed of emergency. These will be kept in sealed bags (provided), and will only be used in case of emergency to phone either an instructor, teacher or the emergency services. Failing to follow this policy may result in students failing their expedition.
Documents
1 Parents Carers Guardians Information Booklet
2 Programme Ideas - All Sections
5 Programme Ideas - Volunteering updated
External Links
Residential Opportunities Finder
Unfortunately we will no-longer be offering the kit-hire that we have offered in previous years. If you need any support with kit, please let us know through the DofE email, dofe@alleynes.staffs.sch.uk.
Use this link to sign up to our 2026/2027 Duke of Edinburgh's Award programme.
