Starting the Silver Award
Please fill out the Permission Agreement below if you wish to participate in the Silver Award Scheme.
Once registered in the online system you can fill in your logs and keep a record of your progress. When finished you can submit it to your award leader for assessment. For the requirements of the Silver Award please refer to www.dofehillary.org.nz
Information for all sections
- No activity for Silver can be started before your fifteenth birthday.
- It is important to follow the guidelines in the Handbook (there is a copy in the library) and on the website (www.dofehillary.org.nz).
- Ask your Award Leader if you have further questions about your activities.
Adventurous Journey section
There are two types of training required (First Aid and Bushcraft) before setting out on either of the two tramps (Practice Tramp and Qualifying Tramp.) Students enrol with the appropriate organisations themselves.
All silver tramps must be run by an accredited Duke of Edinburgh provider no trips are to be parent lead!
First Aid
A basic First Aid Certificate can be provided by www.stjohn.org.nz (Level 1 course) or http://www.redcross.org.nz(Save-a-Life course). Please note that this is in addition to the small amount of First Aid covered in the Bushcraft courses.
Bushcraft
Training about bushcraft, navigation, survival etc. This can be provided by Makahika Outdoor Pursuits Centre, Phone: 06 368 9347, Email: makahika@xtra.co.nz, Web: http://www.makahika.co.nz
There are also other providers approved by Duke of Edinburgh and these are found on the Duke of Edinburgh website. Training for Silver can also be done online now. Go to http://www.bronzetraining.com/ for more information.
These courses are not very frequent so it is important to check the dates and enrol as soon as possible.
Organising a Silver Tramp
Students organising their own tramps must understand that to meet the Award requirements, such tramps are not just family outings. The Award requires that a tramp consists of 4 - 7 young people (not necessarily all participating in the Award, but all must be trained to at least Silver level Bushcraft) with experienced adult supervisors (who may be family members, but must be familiar with and responsible for the requirements of being a DOE assessor). It is important that the student group does the planning, and it is not for parents to plan the journey but to offer assistance with details.
Duke of Edinburgh and Samuel Marsden Collegiate do not support tramping between April and October due to NZ weather bringing about life-threatening conditions very quickly and sometimes without warning in some parts of NZ – high rainfall, low temperatures, high winds etc.
The Tramps which are suitable for Practice and Qualifiers are listed on www.dofehillary.org.nz.
Silver Practice journeys (3 days, 2 nights) should be planned and executed using best techniques and should give participants enough experience to plan and undertake their qualifying journey in confidence. They should be carried out in an environment similar to, but must not be the same route as, the qualifying journey.
To ensure your Silver Qualifying Tramp (3 days, 2 nights) meets DOE Silver requirements you must arrange a meeting with your co-ordinator at least 6 weeks before setting out to discuss route, daily plans, fitness, safety, weather, assessors etc. The details of your planned Adventurous Journey can be filled out in your online record book.
To prepare for that meeting you should also print or send your assessor the Assessor Checklist, the Assessor Guidelines Tramping and the Assessor Competency Form.Your Award Leader will expect to see these completed forms:
- The Assessor Checklist
- The Tramp Planning Form - with copies of the last page completed for each student.
- The Assessor Competency Form - signed by your Assessor.
- The Risk Management Form.
- Completing the Gold Adventurous Journey Approval Form is good practice but not necessary. However, it demonstrates that the group has used their map reading skills and has considered the terrain they will be covering, and as such their tramp will be known to be manageable. Your assessor may require you to do this as good practice (on the Gold page of this site).
It is important that all students are physically capable of completing the tramp – a Silver tramp is much harder than a bronze tramp. Training tramps in the week/s prior to an official Practice or Qualifying tramp are important to build strength and endurance and for the group to understand the pace other members can manage.
Practice tramps are important to build strength and endurance and for the group to understand the pace other members can manage.
It can be a challenge to find an assessor/ supervisor – please talk to your Duke of Edinburgh's Hillary Award Leader at Marsden for some ideas about who to contact. A supervisor should oversee all your planning and follow you on your tramp.
The Award Leader has some cooking equipment which you may borrow.
Useful links
Links to Outdoor Education and First Aid Providers