The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

The philosophy of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award aligns naturally with Open Gate. It is built on experiential learning, student initiative, cooperation, mutual understanding, and tolerance. Self-reflection and self-assessment also play a key role.

Students choose individual goals and challenges in four areas:

• sport
• skills development
• volunteering
• expedition

They strengthen their sense of responsibility and perseverance, discover and push their own limits, and gain new skills. The DofE programme offers three levels of difficulty—bronze, silver, and gold. By taking part, students become part of an international community, and some continue even after achieving the gold level, helping to expand the programme to other schools.

Open Gate students complete all three levels of the Award. Achieving the bronze level typically takes three months, and students can apply each February if they are in Year 5, 6, or 7 (kvinta, sexta, septima). Completing the silver level takes six months, and only students who have already earned the bronze level may apply. This means students in sexta or septima can register in December.
The gold level is open only to holders of the silver Award, and applications take place in September at the beginning of septima. Meeting all the criteria for the gold level is the most demanding and takes at least one year.

Our grammar school joined the programme shortly after its founding. Since 2005, our students have earned nearly 500 certificates across all Award levels.

None of these activities would be possible without the strong commitment of our staff. Open Gate currently has a team of 11 accredited DofE leaders.

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