Information on Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award Programme
The Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award Programme is run by Aotea College and
students over the age of 14 are welcome to sign up. It is all about initiative and
students enrolled for the award are encouraged to manage themselves. Application
forms are available from Jeff Chapman. The enrolment fee is $26. Bring the
enrolment form and the fee to the office for processing.
The award programme has three levels with four aspects at Bronze and Silver level
and five aspects at Gold level.
Students must be 14 to enroll in Bronze, 15 to enroll in Silver and 16 to enroll in
Gold. Enrollees have until they are 25 to complete the award but as you will not be
enrolled at Aotea much beyond your 18th birthday we recommend you complete the
programme in year 10 for bronze, year 11 for silver and years 12 & 13 for Gold
(depending when your birthday falls).
The aspects of the award programme are: Skill, Physical Activity, Community
Service and Expedition Leadership. In addition to those 4 there is also the
Residential Project at Gold level.
Skill:
A list of suggested skills is available on the Duke of Ed website:
http://www.dofehillary.org.nz/Site/do_the_award/skills.aspx. Students enrolled in the
programme would have to fulfill the required curriculum as stated on the website.
Physical Activity
Anything regular in the way of physical activity would be fine but joining a sports
team is an easy way to do it as you have regular games.
Service
Volunteering your time in a community service project is the other aspect.
For the three activities above please note:
1. They must be regular weekly activities (not done over a short period)
2. Each activity requires an assessor – e.g. your music teacher, your sports
coach, someone who sees you going to the gym every Wednesday etc.
3. Each occurrence of the activity needs to be recorded and signed
4. If you miss a week, add another week to the end
5. Time requirements are stated below.
Bronze: 3 months of each plus 3 extra months of one of them
Silver: 6 months of each
Gold: 12 months of each
If needed, you can change your sport as most sports do not run for 12 months.
Expedition Leadership:
To demonstrate your leadership skills, you must first train in bushcraft. Then you can
lead a practice tramp and finally an assessment tramp. Special things to note are
below:
1. A leader is someone who has planned the tramp from the outset
2. You may team up with one other person to lead together
3. You must lead a party of your peers – minimum party size 4, maximum 7
4. Every trip needs to be shadowed by two experienced adults who have been
approved by the school
5. You need to show us your planning – we will want to see your trip plan, your
list of people plus other things like the food you plan to cook, the kit list and
other gear you will be taking
6. The expedition requirements are listed below.
Bronze: 2 days (1 night)
Silver: 3 days (2 nights)
Gold: 4 days (3 nights)
Note that practice tramps need to be the same number of nights but can be shorter
distances than assessment tramps. Assessment tramps need to be on unique track
which means: find a loop track! There’s further information on the following link:
http://www.dofehillary.org.nz/Site/do_the_award/adventurous_journey.aspx
At school we will help you in the following ways:
1. Give you bushcraft training (offered in term 1 and sometimes also in term 4
depending on demand). You must attend all sessions to be signed off.
2. Find you alternative bushcraft training from outside providers if our dates
don’t work for you.
3. Help you plan your tramps by suggesting routes and helping you with the
paperwork
4. Do our best to come on your tramps as shadows (provided we can make your
dates!)
5. Help you fill in the activity record sheet that records your three activities
6. Help Gold students find a suitable residential project
What you need to do:
1. Attend your activities regularly – e.g. practice the piano, play the football
games etc.
2. Get it signed off every time
3. Have an agreed goal with your assessor at the beginning of the activity
4. Look after your book so you don’t get it lost
5. Get your booked filled in as you complete an activity
The teachers involved in this program are:
Jeff Chapman
Tom Fanning
Beverley Holder