Kids want to do DoE through school- letter has come through with first cut of costs- aside from registration and admin costs of £34 they’re suggesting that the expeditions cost (for silver) will be expected to be around £400 through somebody called ICY Expeditions. Practice expedition locally, qualifying in the Peak, around 2 hours drive away.
Is this a fair and common cost?

Sounds about right, eldest finally finished his Covid ravaged Gold last year, daughter just starting Bronze. If the school haven’t got their own assessors and kit, it has to be bought in.

Well worth it though. Our two have done a lot of outdoorsy stuff via Scouts and Guides but the volunteering and skills aspect is just as important. LittleMissMC is 14 and somewhat surprised that she likes being a Young Leader at Rainbows and seeing them try new things and gain confidence.

Not fair, not common but it depends where you live.

Silver Expedition should take place in an area unfamiliar to the kids so usually outside of their local area. This means there are some travel costs involved. It sounds like you school doesn’t have suitable volunteers for training or supervising. This means they need to outsource that to a company. This is where the cost is.

Hopefully the school have measures in place for DofE to be inclusive to all and not just those kids who have parents able to stump up the cash.

I think we’ll be paying around £80 for bronze 1 night practice, 1 night actual + 1 hr / week skills teaching after school – provided by one of the teachers. School also has kit that the kids can borrow if they don’t have their own rucksack/ cooking stuff / tent / etc

Yes, our lads Bronze award was cheaper as school had staff who could run it at that level.

Daughter doing hers through Guides, be interesting if/when they need to outsource it.

You could do it through Scouts/Explorers for a fraction of the cost. Also, we were on Scout Camp the other week and the school DoE groups that we saw seemed to be a bit Micky Mouse.

Don’t know how reflective this is in general. My kids’ school had their bronze expedition last weekend and although the hike wasn’t massive at least the photos suggested that they had got their boots dirty.

Thanks all.
They’re in Explorers, but I think would rather do this with closer mates at school. It’s a bit of a shock considering the relatively low cost of stuff they’ve done with Scouts/Explorers, but I guess that’s the price of paying salaries rather than relying on volunteers.

My lad has done bronze and silver through high school. He’s at 6th form now and just done his gold practice. Not sure of the costs but the school and college both have their own assessors and kit so it was a lot less than that.

I think it depends on school we pay with our daughters school but friends who live in a nearby town don’t pay, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a lot of money and the kids seem to enjoy it.

Holy C+++ £400, now makes me realise how lucky i was to do this through the Army Cadets many moons ago, don’t think we ever paid more than a fiver per weekend as a contrbution. Did Snowdon loads of times out of CapelCurig, and the fan – and the intro to living with a trangier set – oh the good ole days..

My kids are in Cubs and Scouts so loooking forward to them picking this up via them. We too had options for it to be done as part of school with eldest Sui who’s 11 at Secondary, but said she’s already involved..

Was about to say the same as @Sui, I was in Air Cadets and can’t remember a cost with doing DoE stuff (granted it will have been nearly 20 years ago now).

Big regret of mine not actually finishing DoE when I did Air Cadets (I left).

That is about right – paying for a professional costs money, particularly if you want some level of quality and safety.

I also agree with the concerns about accessibility for those who don’t have that money.

For those saying ‘do it through voluntary’, the cost of this is similar. It is just off-set by volunteers, grants etc.

With our BB’s I put in 9 days out with groups, 6 evenings trainings, 4 more evenings faffing with kit this year – and there are three or four of us who do that each year. Value – £150-200 a day per volunteer?

We have a grant funded minibus. We just won another grant to replace all our kit with from the local windfarm. We ask parents for help with lifts. A local farmer gave us an unused container and we use it as kit store. We fundraise through the year.

Our insurance is covered by BB Scotland. As is support and training. Most of our volunteers arrived with some qualifications such as Mountain Leader, ex military etc.

In having so many ML holders, we can choose anywhere in Scotland. We literally at Sliver and Gold pull out the maps and books and ask the boys ‘where do you want to go?’. And we do.

We are incredibly fortunate.

But it still ‘costs’ the same as what the OP is being charged.

We suggest a donation of £35-55 at Bronze and Silver, we do often outsource some of our Gold qualifiers and they (at a good rate through a couple of my old staff) work out at around £200-300 a head.

Can I ask – if you have some outdoor skilz, consider volunteering for DofE expeds. It is a huge help, reduces cost and is hard work and enjoyment at the same time.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/TxEbst]Dunblane BB’s DofE Silver Practice 2017[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/28s3DDj]Dunblane BB Gold & Silver DofE[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/matt_outandabout/B3250o]Dunblane BB Exped highlights[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/matt_outandabout/7Nd4iZ]Dunblane BB Exped highlights[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

Part of the pitch my son had doing it through Explorers was the cost vs via school. He wants to see the school presentation before deciding. TBH we’re not too worried if he goes via school as he attends a special needs school (he has CP) so they’re a bit more set up for dealing with additional needs. If he goes via explorers I’d probably have to tag along.

Did mine back in 2000 ish, and i dont think we had to pay at all.

BUT we were foruntate.

School wasnt an underfunded local comp, so had staff who were prepared to (paid to?) put in more time and effort. (no offence intended to local comps)
Good pool of non paid volunteers (which i suspect any group will have?)
and i think the school just sucked up the cost of the minibusses because they were able to.

Between outdoor adventure clubs and Army cadets there was always gear to borrow if you needed it (and brought it back clean and dry)

I ran DofE at Uni for two years, and we were never charged anything by the local coordinator for his attendance to assess etc. I think we had to run a basic nominal membership fee to get covered the uni insurance policy but that was it.
We mustve put fuel in the uni minibusses, but i dont think there was much a charge to have them for the weekend.

Did mine back in 2000 ish, and i dont think we had to pay at all.
BUT we were foruntate.

School wasnt an underfunded local comp, so had staff who were prepared to (paid to?) put in more time and effort. (no offence intended to local comps)
Good pool of non paid volunteers (which i suspect any group will have?)
and i think the school just sucked up the cost of the minibusses because they were able to.

Between outdoor adventure clubs and Army cadets there was always gear to borrow if you needed it (and brought it back clean and dry)

I ran DofE at Uni for two years, and we were never charged anything by the local coordinator for his attendance to assess etc. I think we had to run a basic nominal membership fee to get covered the uni insurance policy but that was it.
We mustve put fuel in the uni minibusses, but i dont think there was much a charge to have them for the weekend.

If everyone who did it and benefitted in some way (whether that was just experiencing a whole new world, learning a new skill, having something vaguely interesting to put on their CV and standout) put just a little bit back in then everyone could probably access it at very low cost.

in the grand scheme of things it’s not a lot of money

I’m also in the fortunate position that a bill like that would be a sharp intake in breath but perfectly doable. In reality for plenty of parents that’s a **** huge amount of money for one kid to go away on a couple of weekends. I know there’s no way my parents could have afforded that for us (even allowing for inflation) – and we weren’t the kids on free school meals etc. It would have been so big I wouldn’t even have asked my parents if it was possible. And that’s a Silver – you are presumably looking double that for Gold? and then a residential week on top?

@vinnyeh – I think the important question would be what’s included in that price? Training before you go (first aid, navigation, putting up tents etc)? Transport to the Peak (and the local practice)? The shared equipment (tent, stove, fuel, first aid kit etc)? maps, compasses? Personal equipment (waterproofs, boots, survival bag etc)? food? I think the other thing to be aware of would be the other sections (which IMHO are often overlooked but just as important) might also not be free – if your child decides they want to learn to play the trumpet, horse ride, sail, etc or is going to enter CX races all over the place for the physical, or even go to a Zumba class every week, and then volunteering should be free – but again depending what they do there could at least be travel costs involved…