85-year-old Jean is committed to assessing her DofE groups

Jean has been a DofE Assessor for over 50 years. Now 85, she still spends her weekends hiking through the countryside and mountains to monitor expeditions although, she admits, she’s traded in her tent for a campervan.

“I started teaching in a school in Chertsey in 1970 and the headmistress asked me to investigate The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. That’s how I became involved in the assessing side. I had one Gold student and found them an expedition in Wales where I met a policeman who roped me into helping with the Brecon Beacon assessor panel.

At the moment I’m still running a group from the parish and helping two special schools with their Expedition. I’m reliant on other people to be my legs, but they support me and we have a good team.

I’m occasionally asked to speak at schools, and my punchline is always: there is no greater privilege that a person of my age can have than to be allowed to walk alongside young people to see them grow in wisdom and stature.

To see the way young people grow in their capabilities and ability to deal with other people, it’s empowering them. Everyone is an individual with potential, and to me that’s what the DofE is about. Every child deserves a chance to reach their potential.

I enjoy myself and love what I do. The more you get to know young people, the more you have faith in the world. If you volunteer wholeheartedly you get so much more out of it than you can put in.

When the young people see you giving, they give. It’s teaching them quiet perseverance and commitment. When you get older you can be an example, look what it’s done for me! It can do the same for you.

My way of working with DofE groups and youth clubs is to empower them to run their own programme and give them ownership. I support them with Bronze, then give them ownership with Silver and Gold. It’s about going with them, not them coming with you.

Since my husband died ten years ago, I’m free to go assessing anytime. Both Surrey and Wales DofE programmes have put me on to a lot of disability groups as an Assessor.

I’m there to see them at the start, once on the hill and in the camp in the evening although I have a campervan to stay in now rather than a tent!

It’s so exciting to do things with young people. The DofE takes young people at any level, helps them set themselves a challenge and we facilitate and encourage that challenge as much as we can.”