Wednesday 28 November 2012

22nd November 2012


Who’s Got Mailout Fever?
We do! The half term break has caused a delay in your favourite internal update as many of the office staff took part in Residentials, but rest assured, the below information is as up to the minute and exciting as usual. You can find out more about the Residentials below. As ever, please email us with anything you want sharing with the rest of the London region and we’ll stick it in a future update.

Please note that with the busy half term, staff being away from the office and illness we have a bit of a backlog with regional admin.  Thank you for your patience whilst we get back up to speed with this. 

Peter Fleet – Commonwealth Youth Worker 2012
On Thursday 8th, Peter was awarded Commonwealth Youth Worker 2012 by the National Youth Agency and the Commonwealth Secretariat in recognition of his work in London and overseas. Congratulations to Peter!  You can read all about it here

Digital Residential
Nine participants from across London took part in the Digital Residential in Brighton this half term, which was a great success and was positively received by participants. The group were met by several expert guest speakers and took part in filmmaking, interviewing and creating digital content. The event culminated in a flashmob on Brighton Pier which you can view here.

If you have participants you feel would enjoy a residential of this nature, please let us know and we can consider future events.  

New Leaders in Gambia
Also during half term New Leaders Programme participants went on their Residential to The Gambia and took part in cultural activities, school visits and youth work training. The group will now begin their youth work placements. You can view a photo gallery of their adventure on our Facebook page here.

EAAS
Now that the Expedition season has closed, please be aware that the processing of EAAS forms is on standby for the time being and will reconvene at the end of January. If you need to check if we have received any paperwork, please contact kirsty.young@dofe.org.

Press Releases
If your group has been up to anything exciting that you would like to share with your local press, or even something that would attract the attention of regional or national press, please let us know and we can assist publicising this via our contacts and through our social media sites. Please email jack.kirby@dofe.org for further details.

DofE Marketplace
The DofE Marketplace is now live http://www.dofe.org/go/marketplace/.

This is an area on the DofE shop, currently sited within the website, where we have negotiated great deals and discounts for participants and leaders, co-ordinators and managers. These discounts include those we already know about e.g. Cotswold or Ordnance Survey, but also include new brands that may be of interest to leaders, young people, their family and friends. There are a number of interesting offers on the site so please have a browse!

eDofE
It has come to our attention that a number of leaders are frustrated with the pop up confirmation box on eDofE (are you sure these details are correct? Etc). It’s possible to turn this off for all but the most important notifications. Go to My Settings from the yellow icon list on the left side of the screen and the option to disable them is in there.

Another gentle reminder that we only require GA7 forms for participants that either a) have no eDofE account or b) have been put through Achieved Offline. The majority of participants should now simply be approved online without paperwork.

Over the last few weeks we have had an increase in enquiries regarding allocating and using participation places. Please remember if you have not allocated places, they will appear under the ‘Licenced Organisation’. We’ve put a quick guide to allocating places on eDofE Resources.

When creating a participant account DofE Manager’s and LO Administrator accounts can use places directly from the LO (section 2). If Coordinators are creating accounts, the participation places must be allocated to a centre or group.

We have also had some further queries regarding the Expedition section. All young people must add their own Expedition Aim (the team aim) and Goal (this is what an individual wants to achieve personally). This will show a participant where they need to add the details. A guide on setting Expedition Aims is also available on the eDofE Resources.

Please be aware the young person should add their aim and goal AFTER you set the details on behalf of the group. If a young person adds it before, they will be allocated 2 qualifying ventures. You will not receive an alert as the young person will only save the changes, not submit them.

Expeditions Required
There is a 14 year male participant from the London Borough of Barnet who has mild cerebral palsy, including mild learning difficulties and mild speech and language difficulties. He would like to attend a Bronze qualifying expedition with a slower paced group or those walking a shorter distance. He has completed a 5 mile walk of a practice expedition. If you have an expedition coming up and have space for this participant, please contact Hayley.Shenholds@DofE.org

There is a 22 year old male participant from the London Borough of Wandsworth who is a wheelchair user and is in need of a Silver practice and qualifying Expedition. If you have one coming up and have space for one more person, please contact Mark Chapman on mchapman@wandsworth.gov.uk

Training
All our available training is listed on our website at this location. This is often updated so please do keep an eye out for new opportunities.

The following opportunity is offered by our outdoor education consultant Alice Turner.

Countryside Leader Award
There will be a CLA course provided by Alice Turner on the following dates:

2, 18-19 Feb 2013          Lea Valley and Chilterns
Cost                             £175 per person + £35 registration fee

The assessment for this course will be as follows:
23-25 August 2013         Lea Valley and Epping Forest
Cost                             £175 per person

To book onto this course please visit http://www.countrysideleaderaward.org/course_dates/.
For more information on the CLA course please contact Alice on web@climbingcourse.co.uk.

eDofE Award Verifier Role
As mentioned at the DofE Managers conferences and written about in the DofE Magazine the Award Verifier Role is coming to eDofE on 19th April 2013. You can find out more about the role here. Please contact Peter if you need any support in this matter or speak with your nominated regional contact.

Additional Needs
There is a new page on the DofE website designed to provide resources and support for groups working with young people who have additional needs. The webpage is located on http://www.dofe.org/go/additionalneeds/.

Please check out the new pages for resources and ideas. If you have any resources to contribute, please send them through to webmaster@dofe.org.   

Final Report of the Mayor's Education Inquiry
This report was launched on 19 October and the Mayor's response has accepted all its recommendations. The media release can be read here. Chapter 3 - 'Preparing young Londoners for life and work in a global city' - should be of particular interest. The report and other documents including the Mayor's response are available to read and download from the GLA website here. Any feedback or queries will be welcome via the Inquiry's email address: educationinquiry@london.gov.uk.

Multi Faith Consultation for DofE Leaders
We are looking for Leaders from a range of faiths and communities to take part in a two day residential consultation. This residential will investigate how we can promote leadership from under-represented communities and ensure DofE programmes remain relevant to young people from diverse backgrounds.
The residential will take place Sunday 20th – Monday 21st January 2013 at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire. Food and accommodation will be provided.
Please see the flyer attached for details and with Leaders in your groups. If any Leaders are interested in attending, please contact Hayley.Shenholds@DofE.org.

Job Vacancies
DofE Richmond want a part time (3 hours per week) DofE leader, please see here for further details and how to apply – be quick, the closing date for applications is 23rd November.

Livery Schools Link
The Livery Schools Link is a fund supported by the Livery Company Golf Days and monies from City fundraising is used to establish new DofE Groups at schools and centres in London.  We are pleased to provide the report for the Livery Schools Link 2011/12, which supported three schools from the Capital to set up the DofE. Click here to read the report.

London Regional Bursary
Please note that funding for the London Regional Bursary has come to an end for this financial year. We are working towards to providing more funds for the year 2013/14. We ask that you do not send in any bursary applications until we have confirmed further funds.

And finally…
Don’t forget to follow our Twitter and Facebook pages for all the latest titbits! 

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