The College is a Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) centre, giving pupils in Years 9, 10 and 11 the opportunity to obtain their Duke of Edinburgh award. Alongside this, we run a Dartmoor Discovery Programme and each year we enter up to three teams (subject to availability at the event) for the annual Ten Tors challenge.

With Dartmoor, Exmoor and the North Devon coast all a short drive from the College, it’s not surprising that we have a thriving and varied outdoor education programme!

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is the world's leading youth achievement award, giving young people the opportunity to be the very best they can be.

DofE at the College has been developed to provide valuable teamwork and leadership experience, both through voluntary work and within school. Pupils build their self-confidence by setting goals and working towards them and will also get to push their boundaries - go exploring, discover new things about the world around them, and hopefully, discover something new about themselves.

In addition to encouraging young people to improve physical fitness, develop new skills and give time to worthy causes, the College runs several DofE expeditions every year, making the most of the fantastic locations we have on our doorstep.

We have around 100 pupils participating in the scheme at any time and the completion rate is very high. We have a good number of qualified and experienced staff and volunteers to help pupils meet their goals and expand their horizons.

Dartmoor Discovery & The Ten Tors Challenge

Our newly created Dartmoor Discovery Programme, which includes The Ten Tors Challenge is not for the faint-hearted! It involves months of arduous training in some of the worst conditions possible on Dartmoor, including fog, hail, rain, snow or high winds, over increasingly challenging distances with increasingly heavy backpacks.

We pride ourselves on the strengths of the Ten Tors teams we produce at the College, with teamwork, determination, and positive attitudes complementing the navigation and survival skills developed over the course of the training. New for this year as part of our Dartmoor Discovery Programme is the North Moor 2026 Expedition. The inaugural event will take place in March 2026, and will involve pupils completing a remotely supervised expedition on North Dartmoor, visiting 20 tors, and walking 26 miles (hence the name!). This event will be the focus of the Dartmoor Discovery, with all pupils on the programme being offered the opportunity to take part. Following this we will select up to three teams of six (subject to availability at the event) to take part in Ten Tors in May 2026.

We have a fantastic team of staff and volunteers who repeatedly offer their time generously in all weathers and seasons to enable these great adventures to take place. We are hugely grateful to them all for their kindness, commitment, energy and good humour. These events simply could not take place without them.