The Physical section is about doing a sport or aerobic activity regularly that works your body and “puffs you out” (which distinguishes it from a skill)!
This page explains what you can do for your Physical, what doesn’t count, how to get started, how long you need to do it for and how to finish.
Your sport can be something organised by school, like regularly playing for a team and attending training or it could be something you follow outside school, in a team or on your own.
What can I do in Lockdown?
Scroll down for more ideas but, in brief, during LOCKDOWN you can adapt your sport to do fitness training at home which supports your usual sport. For example, exercise routines or gym sessions or running or a combination will be ideal. You MUST talk to your assessor to agree this and adapt goals… this is acceptable in dofe and preferable to changing activity so they should agree. You can easily change back to your usual activity when normal life starts again.
As usual, you must keep evidence of regular activity, at least a log of dates and progress, to show your assessor and upload to edofe so your Physical section can be approved and passed.
How to start your Physical
- First, find an adult to be your Assessor. Usually this is a Coach or trainer or it could be an adult known to you with an expertise, interest and understanding of the activity.
- Ask them if they are willing to be your Assessor by saying “Please will you be my DofE Assessor for my sport activity?”. If they agree, then…
- Talk to them and agree your dates, times and goals.
- Submit details on eDofE, including your Assessor contact details and agreed goals for approval on eDofE so that they can be checked before you start anything.
- Keep evidence as you progress. This should be a log of dates or briefly updated diary of your progress. If possible add further evidence to show that you are making progress e.g. photo evidence or Awards.
- Remember you can be an expert or start a new sport as a beginner. It is progress that counts and this means setting appropriate goals with your Assessor.
Family members cannot be assessors
Do not leave details on eDofE as “draft”. Click ‘Submit for Approval” to get plans approved before starting.
What can I do for my Physical section?
You can choose almost any sport as your Physical Activity. However, you will need to find an Assessor.
It could be a team sport that you play regularly for a school or club.
At least an hour a week.
Matches, practice and training count, so log them.
It could be an individual sport that you participate in regularly. For example, Park Run is a good choice because it logs your times and dates, making targets easy to manage.
Fast Park Runner? If you include warm ups, warm downs and extra runs in the week then this will satisfy one hour per week criteria!
You could also run on your own. Just keep an accurate record and log of times and dates. Use an App like Strava for this to show evidence to your Assessor and eDofE.
Whatever physical activity you choose you must find an adult Assessor. You need to discuss goals and targets with them before you start and note these on eDofE.
How long do I do my Physical activity for?
You must participate regularly in your sport for at least an hour a week for the correct time scale.
If the season ends before you have accrued the hours required to pass your Award then…
- TALK to your coach to add off-season winter training or strength and conditioning in the gym or stamina training that can count to your DofE physical. Your coach must agree but this is a good solution.
- Provide your Assessor with plenty of evidence of your continued activity.
- You could take a break and add more hours again in the new season.
- There is no need to change sport.
Participate in your sport for at least one hour per week for 3, 6 or 12 months, depending on the Award.
Stuck for a sport?
Want to try something new? These are all available locally, amongst many others.
Whatever you do, remember that regular participation is required.
A SHORT intensive period of sport squeezed into a few days does NOT COUNT e.g. an intensive four day training course at a rugby camp or hockey event does NOT count for DofE Physical activity by itself. You will need to add further regular hours every week to pass.
Please ASK before you book anything so that we can advise you before you spend any money on courses. They are not really necessary for this section.
School games lessons and PE periods do not count for DofE!
- School lesson time NEVER counts towards DofE.
- PSHE, PE, Games, Electives lessons do NOT count towards DofE regardless of the subject e.g. first aid elective does NOT count to dofe, football in games does NOT count.
- Training and matches after school DO count!
- Ask if not sure.
How do I finish my Physical section?
- Make sure you have completed the correct timescale, including adding any gaps for breaks and holidays so that your total time adds up to the total required to pass.
- Get your evidence together to show your Assessor and upload it to eDofE. This should include a log of dates.
- You can now ask your Assessor to sign up your eDofE card. They should write a report on your participation, commitment, progress and achievement. Upload their report to edofe and mark as Assessor Report.
- Alternatively, ask your assessor to use this webpage to type in their report direct to your eDofE account.
More ideas for Physical activities in Lockdown…
Below are loads of ideas of ways you can do your Physical section at home. For more inspiration, check out our full list of Physical section activities.
– Do an online yoga course with Lizzie Ward Yoga, The Kindness Club, Yoga CharmD or The Yoga Gate
– Complete the Couch to 5k challenge, or many of the other NHS fitness sessions
– Do an hour’s YouTube fitness video each week (you can try boot camps, pilates, dance routines and more)
– Get out on your bike or on a walk in your local area – use an app to track your routes to upload as evidence on eDofE
– Do some fitness challenges (such as 100 press up challenge, plank challenge, step challenge)
Download more sport ideas here:
programme ideas – Physical
and more advice here http://www.dofe.info/go/faqp
Please contact DofE staff at school if you have any questions.
Reigate Grammar School DofE 
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