Wing DofE 2026: Over three weekends in April, May and June, Trent Wing has been able to deliver DofE expeditions to over 150 different cadets at Bronze Training / Assessed, Silver Practice, Silver Assessed & Gold practice levels. This would not have been possible without the generous support of the Ulysses Trust & the RAF Charitable Trust, who have not only reduced the headline cost per cadet to keep the pricing inclusive, but have also assisted in paying for staff training to be able to increase the offer to our cadets, Wing wide.
On the main DofE weekend 02-05 May we saw 120 cadets and some 40 CFAV converge at Barn Farm in the White Peak Area where it was possible to offer training and assessed expeditions at Bronze, practice at Silver and one assessed expedition at Silver. With these numbers added to the Gold practices in April and June we should also be well placed for around 60 cadets ready for Silver / Gold assessment in Sept 2026 along with the launching training for our first silver Canoe expeditions for 2027.
The routes were varied and enriched in history with anything from Pagan landmarks at Robin Hood’s Stride and Nine Ladies, Lead Mining history in Lathkill Dale and villages surrounding Matlock plus natural geological features such as the Limestone Way / Pavement weaving its way through the routes – some teams were even able to walk through the grounds of the Chatsworth Estate.
In general, the weather was fairly settled but not overly warm compared to previous years but with some heavy rain showers over Saturday – but the cadets equipped themselves well showing application of skills learned and lots of determination with all completing their targets for the weekend.
As always, a huge thankyou to the CFAV’s who gave up their Bank Holiday weekend to help train, supervise and assess the cadets, and to parents for transporting the cadets to the expedition area on a busy bank holiday weekend – well done!!
Wing DofE Officer Sqn Ldr Gill Wills said:~
“The popularity of the Wing based expeditions has grown to the point we had to do three weekends this year to cater for all the cadets – it’s especially pleasing to see all the squadrons in the Wing participating now and our continued good number see us well placed to regain the Sir Roger Austin Sword for best DofE Wing in RAFAC that we won last year – without the support of the Ulysses Trust we would not be able to run the expeditions at the cost we do which keeps it inclusive for the backgrounds of our cadets.”
