Do you know what, that’s what I meant 
I think because there was a lot of talk about expeds my Saturday night brain “that’s walking far”.
Don’t get hung up on just the expedition.
If participant completed their Physical, Skills and Volunteering sections at any level, they gain the Certificate of Achievement.
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Don’t actually need to be a Staff Cadet, you can do the intro course younger, but you can only have a Helpers Account until you turn 18.
Also once you do have Silvers or Golds administering DofE can be there volunteering.
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Ah this is the bit I was thinking about. I knew you couldn’t get an account until you were 18, but yeah, I guess no reason not to do the intro course! Cheers for correcting me 
As a minimum I like them to have their assessor report some comments from the cadet and a photo of them doing the activity. Although it can be difficult to get a photo if other people are involved for GDPR purposes.
Good luck i quite enjoy helping them gain their awards.
Everything you have written beyond this is in addition to the DofE requirements and should be signed off with or without.
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Quite. It’s the “D of E Award”, not the “Calypso Award”…
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Couldn’t agree more with you and @daws1159! There are a number of DofE types that I’ve run into that seem to forget that this isn’t a cadet award, but a national youth award. I get that we generally have different standards in the Air Cadets vs some schools, but enforcing those on DofE is not okay!
I’ve got into debates before about staff thinking a group should be deferred on exped and having to remind them that they are only assessing against the 20 conditions, not the standards of the RAFAC or their personal standards.
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Don’t get me wrong I encourage photos and a personal statement but I don’t require.
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Thank you.
Exactly. I encourage cadets not to have tents strapped to the outside of their bags rather than inside (a personal gripe) but if that’s what they end up doing, they won’t fail be deferred for it!
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Yes - exactly my approach too. I suggest that putting extra stuff in will be good for them in lots of ways (and more likely for my Wg D of E officer not to bounce it, since he is pretty strict), but if they refuse to do it it won’t stop me submitting it
Why? Dont you think that they should not put something towards their awards? To evaluate their own self achievement?
What is the point of D of E giving us volunteering logs?
I think they should, but it’s not required as part of the award, so I won’t fail them for not doing so
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Fair enough.
I would point them straight to the book too!
I’ve tried…
Region would be next and if not go to Corps, or raise it direct with Will at Windsor.
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Yeh, I don’t think my Rgn would be very good, but I know a couple of the other Regional ones pretty well, so I know I’ve got places to get advice from
of course these sort of practices are exactly what the training walks and practise exped is for - to weed out these “bad habits” (it isn’t a gripe of yours, in my experience it is a Corps wide attitude, certainly for anyone with real trekking/camping experience and know what they are talking about)
if the training and exped were done completely the assessed element should be have they applied their training, which in turn was in place to pass the 20 conditions…
i do however recognise i am talking in the “ideal world” as so many Cadets seem to be on an assessed exped and that is only the third time they have used their walking boots, and second time using a stove and tent to live