Supervising DoE trips

It looks like I might be helping out with supervising DoE groups from my niece's school on their Bronze practice and assessed trips.

Any suggestions of what I should expect to have to do, and extra kit that might need to be carried would be welcome.

I'm sure the school will let me know, but I like to be well prepared for these sort of things.

Include a little history in your walks. Pecsaetan - Ancient Derbyshire, Staffordshire and South Yorkshire - http://pecsaetan.weebly.com/

In a previous millennium, when I was a teenager, I did my DoE through school, with the enthusiastic assistance of a number of teachers. Where I lived, the local authority seemed to be very go-ahead, and as soon as I got my DoE, they came knocking on my door (we had no telephone) and signed me up to do instruction and assessment. Ha... can you imagine a local authority conscripting a teenager like that these days?

Anyhow... the local authority sent me off on a residential course, which was great fun, and they told us exactly what was required of us. So there I was... a mere teenager... instructing and assessing other teenagers!

I guess I'd be doing it to this day, except I left that area and the brief contact I had with a neighbouring local authority left me chilled to the very marrow. Actually, the sole person I met seemed incredibly hostile and bitter-minded, and one minute in her presence was as much as I could tolerate, so I walked out and never looked back.

Moral of the story... never mess with a volunteer!

As for the OP's request for information... if they've asked you to help out, then you should expect them to be able to spell out exactly what they want you to do, and give you every support and encouragement to do it.

I've recently completed by Gold DofE through school. On the expeditions, we would meet supervisors and/or assessors between two to three times a day. This depended on the route, as there were sometimes no obvious points to meet at. 

As a supervisor, you'll probably have a bit of waiting around to do, as it's impossible to predict exactly when a group will arrive at a certain point. For that reason, I'd suggest taking something to read/do. Some supervisors take a lightweight shelter and perhaps a stove if the weather is wet or cold. Based on my experience, supervisors are required to check that the group know where they are and where they are heading to. Also check if anyone has problems with blisters or with adjusting their rucksacks. 

Finally, you may be required to meet the groups in the morning at the campsite to check that they have packed away properly and not left litter etc. Depending on the experience of the groups, you could have to help pack away or put up tents. 

I'm really grateful to the supervisors for my DofE, so it's great that you're helping - enjoy!

When I did my Gold DoE expedition, the assessor planned to meet us a couple of times a day, as well as turn up at our camps to see how we were doing. All was fine, until his car blew up and he didn't make it to one of the check-points. This was in the days before mobile phones, when telephones lived in red boxes. Once he was an hour overdue, we split the party... half staying where we were in case he turned up... and half going to the nearest phone box to try and find out where he was. Of course, we could only phone a remote contact and hope that the assessor had also been able to reach a phone and get a call though to the same contact. Fortunately, this was the case, and we learnt what the problem was, and the instruction we were given was to sit tight and wait. I think we had to wait four hours for the guy to turn up in the end. That meant we all had to put our heads together and re-hash the rest of the route and figure out a different place to camp on our final night. We got full marks for being very sensible.

These days, I imagine keeping in touch is a doddle with mobile phones, but on the flip side, I guess the amount of bureaucracy, red tape, health and safety and general interference probably outweighs any advantages.

when practising, the groups are learning expedition skills, nav. camping etc. Thus they need support to learn these but there is no set formula. the groups probably have more adult support on initial practices and less on later ones. During assessment, the only support they shpould need is eg. dropping off and collecting.

the skills they need are all the commonplace ones, nav and route finding, packing kit, camp skills including cooking. stuff like that. the only one likely to be unfamiliar to a regular hill walker is planning the route in a series of legs on a detailed route card.

I think that the DoE expedition can look quite old fashioned, behind the times. I have seen shrimpy 16 year old girls collapsing beneath 30lb packs full of trangias and bottles of water with cups dangling off the back. Kit choice and management could often be better.

I went out last year to assist with a school group doing their first Bronze practice walk. It was just a day walk, and the group was split into smaller groups of about 6, one of which I looked after (along with their teacher who had just started up the DoE programme in the school and was in the same boat as the pupils in terms of experience).

Along the way we talked a bit about hill-skills - countryside code sort of thing, some stuff on weather (sunny spells puncuated by heavy showers made that ideal), and some basic map-reading skills, navigation and use of compass.

Each of us group supervisors carried a large bothy bag, a bit of extra food and warm clothing, just in case. We needed the bothy bags at lunchtime!

I've been supervising and assessing DoE for too many years - and am now teacher in charge at a school so

1) The school is damn lucky to have you CP - real enthusiasts who have a slightly whacky edge on things are as rare as hens teeth and more precious than gold.

For the practice - depends on the school policy. You may actually be walking with them, you may not, so give them their head and make them think/feel/know its their exped and you are honoured to be given the opportunity etc etc. If they are having fun, you will have fun and they will learn loads

For the assessed - again depends a bit on the group, but you may actually only see them a few times a day and will spend most of your time waiting for something to happen.  I use a bike to get between checkpoints.

I always take a play box with me for the evening - couple cheap frizbees, footyball, maybe a kite or two - I also throw in some value mini swiss rolls for the group (no matter how posh the group, Sainsbury' value ones always go down well), an extra fleece and a jacket along with a sleeping bag

CP - I have done similar for a few years. I'll second MK's points about being prepared to deal with unexpected and perhaps packing heavier than usual.

As supervisor their welfare is on you and how much you have to get involved (bearing in mind the ideal is that they will learn through their own experience) will depend on their experience and level of maturity. If it is DofE there is a fairly well established programme of training (and a day course in supervision I think)

There is some good reading on this if you are getting more into it too. On BMC or MLTE website you can get "Remote Supervision Guidance Notes". None of it replaces outdoor skills but that and some info from government sites I have forgotten (Health and Safety executive?? perhaps. I need to dig out my reference notes) has good prompts and what could be best practise.

Depending on where you are going I would also read into the new guidance that is cascading out about water hazards and remotely supervised groups. This is, I assume, coming from outcomes of the Dartmoor drowning inquest of a few years ago. 

A speedy reply as I am off out but will happily elaborate further as required.

The level of supervision reduces as one progresses from Bronze to Gold. However in all  cases the main role of the supervisor is to ensure the participant's safety. At Bronze level this will normally involve close supervision ie within shouting distance!. At Gold I don't meet them at all during the day, that is the Assessor's responsibility,  but I do know where the danger points are and where they are likely to go wrong.  The fun is watching them from a distance and wondering how long it will be before they realize the error of their ways.

Erm..not quite.  The official guidance is that CRBs should be renewed every three years (though this is just guidance and not a requirement) and whilst it is possible to "port" a CRB from one organisation to another the official guidance is dont and if the CRB is more than 3 months old...really dont.

The best situation I had was I was asked for a CRB number because I was filling in at a school  - the school didnt want to see (and got quite uptight when I gave them the origional certificate to copy) the certificate itself in case "there is anything on it you wouldnt want us to see"

GOF wrote (see)

Erm..not quite. The official guidance is that CRBs should be renewed every three years (though this is just guidance and not a requirement) and whilst it is possible to "port" a CRB from one organisation to another the official guidance is dont and if the CRB is more than 3 months old...really dont.

The best situation I had was I was asked for a CRB number because I was filling in at a school - the school didnt want to see (and got quite uptight when I gave them the origional certificate to copy) the certificate itself in case "there is anything on it you wouldnt want us to see"

The situation is a bit better now, but at one stage, my wife had about 6 CRB checks in one year for different roles, two were for our kids' primary school as different types of helper.

I think it would make more sense for a system where one signs up to the CRB, and stating that organisations x,y and z may be informed of ones CRB status until a cancellation request is sent, whereupon the said organisation would be informed of the cancellation request.

From a personal privacy point of view, I think it is about equivalent to the current system, but would remain live.

there has been a review of the system trying to design one like this for several years. It keeps getting set back because (I think) of difficulties with capacity of national databases (only Grattons can manage them).

At the moment the situ is like this:

you want to work for organisation O.

O asks for checks to be made - has this individual committed known criminal acts or is he ciurrently under investigation.

CRB is returned - no criminal records or pending issues at the moment. - O can employ individual. O decides from info. whether to employ or not.

Policy of O determines when check needs to be redone. 3 yearly or whatever.

The system makes sense but is expensive, bureaucratic, and time consuming. It cause some anomolies. If you have received a on the spot fine for fare dodging then own up on the CRB application, because it;ll probably turn up and waste your time later.