The award

Hounslow Youth Service also offers the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award which is a range of challenging, fun activities for you to do in your spare time.

There are three Awards to try for - gold, silver and bronze. Which get harder and take longer as you work up from bronze to, hopefully, gold.

To get the award, you just need to choose an activity from each of these headings, and do it for a set length of time:

• Service - you can be a local hero and help the community, the environment or even train to save a life?
• Skills - learn new skills, do something different, whether you fancy yourself as a fine artist or a trapeze artist.
• Physical Recreation - any sport, dance or fitness activity can count.
• Expedition - go on an expedition to find out some more about yourself. Train, plan and complete an adventurous journey in the countryside on foot, horseback, boat or cycle.
• Residential Project - work as a team on a conservation, service or activity-based project for five days (this is for Gold Award only).

To get more information, visit www.hounslowyouth.org.uk or www.theaward.org