I found out about The Junior Duke Award on the Facebook page of a local private school. It looked like something my girls would like to do, especially now they’ve both left Guiding.
What is the Junior Duke Award?
The Mini and Junior Duke Awards are aimed at helping children become more independent and confident in dealing with new situations. They’ve been running since 2007 and are open to children in schools but also children working independently at home.
There are nine levels of awards, one for each academic year from reception to year 8. The aim is to complete one award each year, with the challenges growing in difficulty. Each level has 10 challenges of which seven must be completed to gain the award.
I signed Agatha up for the platinum level and Peggy for gold. I contacted the award via email and the reply I got from Dawn was super helpful. She’s very encouraging of any child completing these awards, regardless of how they are educated.
How much does it cost?
For a one off payment of £10 plus postage, you get an A4 journal with all your instructions and pages to record your completed challenges, a certificate and a metal badge; this all arrives in one package.
How do you complete a Junior Duke Award?
Once you’ve picked your challenges, off you go! There are clear instructions for each challenge and a space for the child to write about what they’ve done, enjoyed and found difficult/easy (there is a prompt on the page to help with what to write). There is then one full page to stick in any photos. I’ve been surprised at the challenges my two have chosen; they’ve definitely not gone for the easiest ones!
Throughout the book there are references to an assessor and Duke Leader, but this is just the parent/guardian in the case of home educators (it would be a teacher at a school). It is up to the parent to decide if their child has met the challenge and when they have earned the award overall; there is no external assessor.
There are a few challenges that have involved people outside of our family, like their swimming and gymnastics coaches. We’ve asked them to write a comment in their journal and have used it as a way of getting some lovely feedback which the girls have really appreciated (they miss their school reports).
Some families may not want to record anything in the book but we’ve decided we want to complete the book in full. That’s the great thing about the award – it’s up to each family to decide how they’re going to approach it and when they think they’ve done enough.
How long does it take to complete an award?
The challenges are very varied and you can make them as hard and time-consuming as you want them to be. We started in January 2022 and will be easily finished by the end of summer term. You could complete them in a month, an academic year or take more than a year – it’s totally up to you.
How do we sign up?
Just email them through their contact form and they’ll be in touch!
