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


Permission Agreement ALL Participants

Information for all sections

  • No activity for Silver can be started during the year of your fifteenth birthday.
  • It is important to follow the guidelines in the Handbook on the website (www.dofehillary.org.nz).
  • Ask your Award Leader if you have further questions about your activities.

 

Skill, physical recreation and service sections

Requirements: at least 1 hour over a minimum of 6 months/26  weeks for each section. If a sports/activity season doesn't last for the required time, a second sport or activity can be added to the Online Record Book (ORB) with a new assessor.

 

Adventurous Journey section

You need to complete a Preparation and Training Course (bushcraft, map reading) before setting out on either of the two tramps (Practice Tramp and Qualifying Tramp.) Students enrol with the appropriate organisations themselves. See the links on the first page for providers, and there are many providers around the country.

 

All silver tramps must be run by an accredited Duke of Edinburgh provider or approved adults (see your Award guidelines). parents can't assess their own children.

 

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 assessors (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  takes charge when tramping, and it is not for parents to plan the journey but to shadow the group and help if emergencies arise. A minimum of 7 hours purposeful effort per day is required. (2/3  journeying - 4.5 hours)

 
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.


Silver Practice journeys (min 2 days, 1 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 Award Leader 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. There are some planning sheets that need to be filled in before you tramp. These sheets ensure you have planned and thought about all aspects of your journey. Your Award Leader will send these to you.


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. You are putting into practice the skills you learnt in the 'Preparation and Training' course.

 

It can be a challenge to find an assessor – 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 cooking equipment, tents, Emergency Locator Beacons ELB which you may borrow.