Duke of Edinburgh Award
We welcome and work with a variety of schools and other organisations to help deliver the volunteering section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
You will spend your time working to improve a variety of sites including local woodland, nature reserves, chalk grassland and community gardens. All of this will benefit both wildlife and the local community.
To start your Duke of Edinburgh Volunteering, please complete our Application Form today!
See the information below for more details of how your volunteering will work …
Available Volunteering Sessions
Due to the nature of our work, we are unable to offer weekly one hour sessions. Instead we offer longer sessions as shown below:
Bronze Volunteering: You will take part in 4 x 3 hour sessions or equivalent. Total = 12 hours volunteering
Silver Volunteering: You will take part in 8 x 3 hour sessions or equivalent. Total = 24 hours volunteering
Gold Volunteering: You will take part in 16 x 3 hour sessions or equivalent. Total = 48 hours volunteering
Where events are longer than 3 hours, you are welcome to stay for longer.
Please note that any school holiday sessions listed as ‘Rebel Rangers’ only count as 2 hours towards DofE as they are holiday sessions for young people. We ask you to attend a working volunteer session if you want the full hours to count toward DofE awards.
Timing of sessions
We run limited sessions on Saturdays, mostly in the winter (3 hours, 10am-1pm)
In the spring and summer there are regular evening sessions available (2 hours, 5-7pm)
Weekday sessions are available in the school holidays (usually 10am-3pm, stay for 3 hours or 5 hours)
Supervision & Safety
Students in Y9 or below must be accompanied by an appropriate adult throughout their volunteering with us.
Students in Y10 and above may attend alone (apart from their first session) but must be signed in and out by a responsible adult.
A responsible adult must attend the first session with all DofE volunteers.
All our Rangers are DBS checked and First Aid trained. Take a look at our Child Protection Policy for details of our safeguarding procedures.
Please ensure you always arrive on time for the start of each session for the safety briefing and instructions
Booking & Logging Your Volunteering
Once you have completed your application form, you will be added to our database and then receive a weekly email containing details of all our volunteering opportunities.
Please sign up to all sessions you would like to attend using the Eventbrite link (book 2 tickets if attending with an accompanying adult). All current sessions can be seen at Chiltern Rangers CIC Events | Eventbrite
Please note that sessions are usually only posted about 2 weeks in advance as we plan our work according to seasonal needs. As soon as a session is available for booking it will appear on our Eventbrite page, so just keep an eye on that and your volunteering emails from week to week.
When you attend a session, please ensure that you sign in with the lead Ranger on the paper sheet, and mention that you are volunteering as part of your DofE award. This will ensure that your attendance is logged afterwards on our system. Please note that the Eventbrite booking alone will not log your hours.
Please let the lead Ranger know at the start of the session if you have any medical or other needs (for example if you carry an inhaler or EpiPen), or if you have opted out of photo permission.
Always let the lead Ranger know when you are leaving a session if you are not staying until the end.
When you think you have completed your full total of hours, email your contact person in our office. They will check your hours on our system and then complete your assessors report online using your DofE number.
It is always a good idea to keep a note for yourself of the dates and hours you have attended so that you know when to contact us.
We look forward to meeting you soon … remember to complete your Application Form!
If you have any further questions that are not answered above then do email info@chilternrangers.co.uk or call 01494 474486