Latest News - Oxfordshire DofE Award

Witney Open Group

posted 2 Mar 2018, 09:54 by Peter Knight

In association with staff and volunteers at Springfield School, we are launching a new open group in Witney. Please see the Witney Open Group page for details.

OXPED CIC Bronze Expeditions

posted 27 Jan 2018, 06:53 by Peter Knight

OXPED CIC has published details of two Bronze expeditions in 2018.

Please take a look at www.oxped.org.uk for full details. Spaces may be limited, so please apply as soon as possible.

DofE South East Training Courses

posted 17 Jan 2018, 04:49 by Peter Knight

Remember that there is a link to the leader training courses being run by DofE South East from our Training Courses page.

Oxfordshire-based REC2 First Aid and Lowland Leader training courses have recently been added - if you need one of these, book soon!

OXPED CIC Expeditions for 2018

posted 23 Nov 2017, 11:50 by Peter Knight

OXPED CIC has started to publish their list of expeditions for the 2018 season.

OXPED CIC is a volunteer-run not-for-profit organisation dedicated to provide good value expeditions for young people from around Oxfordshire. They expect to offer at least two expeditions at each Award level - more will be added to their website soon as details are finalised.

Please visit their Expeditions Page for further information.

DofE website links

posted 22 Nov 2017, 05:58 by Peter Knight

We have updated all of the links from this website to the recently-moved official DofE pages, so that the information you are looking for should be easily retrieved.

Volunteering Opportunities

posted 16 Nov 2017, 11:36 by Peter Knight

Don't forget to visit our Volunteering page for ideas for this section of your Award. New opportunities are added whenever we are told about them, so keep in touch if you're in need of suggestions!

Training Courses 2017-2018

posted 10 Jul 2017, 08:05 by Peter Knight

We have published the initial list of leader training courses that we are providing over the next year.

These include Lowland Leader training and assessment courses, and some REC2 first aid courses.

Please see the Training Courses page for more information and a booking form.

A Very Successful First Year!

posted 28 Jun 2017, 12:01 by Peter Knight

The Oxfordshire Open Award charity has completed its first year of operation, having taken over the running of the Award for open groups in the county from Oxfordshire County Council.

Our first year's highlights are as follows:

We transferred in many participants who had started their award with Oxfordshire County Council and would otherwise have been unable to complete. In addition the charity has enabled 39 new bronze, 19 new silver and 11 new gold participants to start.
During the year 22 bronze, 6 silver and 5 gold participants completed their awards - none of whom would have been able to do so without our assistance.
Regular meetings have been established for the benefit of the participants in both Abingdon and Kidlington. We also have a 'Virtual Centre' for participants elsewhere in the county.
We have taken over and relocated the DofE equipment store, enabling all DofE groups in Oxfordshire to borrow expedition kit for a nominal fee.
We have established a hardship fund for those in need of financial assistance to complete their award.
We have organised a number of First Aid courses for Oxfordshire DofE leaders, and have run some Lowland Leader Award courses for new leaders.

We are very proud of these achievements! Looking forward the future looks good, with a growing membership and a steady demand for the provision of DofE
award opportunities. It is expected that years 2 and 3 will be seen as consolidation ones, with the view to ensuring sustainability and viability into the mid and long term.

Many thanks to all our volunteers for such a successful year!

OXPED CIC Expeditions - spaces available

posted 27 Apr 2017, 04:58 by Peter Knight

OXPED CIC still have plenty of space on some of their Silver and Gold expeditions, and have just announced the dates for two more Bronze expeditions near the end of the 2017 season, for anybody who would like to finish their Expedition this year.

Please see the OXPED CIC website for full details.

E-mail Issues

posted 26 Jan 2017, 03:02 by Peter Knight [ updated 27 Jan 2017, 08:07 ]

We are aware that our 'enquiries' and 'chair' e-mail addresses appear to be being blocked from certain domains (including oxon.sch.uk). This is due to a problem with btinternet.com not accepting mail from e-mail forwarders, which is how our e-mail addresses have been set up.

If you are trying to contact us by e-mail and get an 'undeliverable e-mail' message, please send to this address instead and your message will be forwarded appropriately.