First of all, there are three levels of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award:

• Bronze   (Start at 14, Finish by 25th Birthday)
• Silver   (Start at 15, Finish by 25th Birthday)
• Gold   (Start at 16, Finish by 25th Birthday)

It's not necessary to do all the levels - indeed, I just did the Gold one!

There's four sections that you need to do (five for gold):

• Community Service
• Skill
• Physical Recreation
• Expedition
• Residential Project (Gold Only)

For my Gold Award, I did the following:

• I helped children with special educational needs with reading and writing before school for the community service part;
• for the skill section, I played the piano;
• the school arranged several months worth of physical recreation sessions to fulfil the physical recreation section;
• our group did some practice expeditions and a qualifying expedition in Snowdonia;
• and finally, for the residential project, I attended a Cathedral Camp in Canterbury.