FAQs

Family members cannot act as the Assessor for any section of the Award - except under the following circumstances on an Adventurous Journey:

Scenarios

1. If your family member is helping to assess an Adventurous Journey group, there must be another assessor present who is not a family member so that a balanced view of the group’s performance can be determined. An Adventurous Journey group passes or fails as a group; there are no circumstances whereby some members will fail and others pass unless a participant had to leave the group and return home (usually because of sickness).
2. An Adventurous Journey cannot be run as a family group. Parents may not supervise or assess any journey if the group consists only of their family members. This is to ensure that all decisions around performance are made without bias, i.e. not being too hard or too lenient on the participant.

The group should be trained to cope with all eventualities that could occur within the group. This should include training on how to negotiate through disagreements if plans need to be changed to accommodate an injured group member, or to assist a participant struggling with one or more elements of the journey.

We are piloting a trial in 2018 where you can start your Bronze Award in the school year that you turn 14 (so that you can work through your Award journey with your peers). This means that you will be able to start Silver once you have completed your Bronze Award, but you must wait until you are 16 to start your Gold Award. If you are a direct entrant to Silver (i.e. you haven't done Bronze), you can start at the age of 14 years and 9 months.

Simply visit https://onlinerecordbook.org or copy and paste the link into your browser. Then either log in (if you already have an account) or click the 'Register' button to create a new account.

Yes. All participants are expected to use the Online Record Book, except if the participant is in prison, where internet access is very strictly controlled.

Contact us for a list of suitable Award Units if you don’t already have one to move to, and we will happily make the change for you.

Read about what's required at each level: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

The Online Record Book will calculate how long the gap is, and automatically adjust your completion date for that section as soon as you start the activity again.

Find the activity options in your region here.

Yes. Your activities do not have to be provided by, or linked to, your Award Unit, but you do need to discuss your choices with your Award Leader before you start.

Absolutely! Your activities are done to the best of your ability, rather than a set of bench-marked standards so in most cases you will be able to do your Award if you have a disability or a medical condition

Yes, you can enrol at, and be mentored by, an Open Award Centre if you are not able to access an Award Unit locally.

Go to your region on our map to find the Approved Activity Providers that offer Adventurous Journeys in your area.  Note that the list includes both commercial providers (where you will have to pay a fee) and voluntary providers.

A Shadow Party can be formed by anybody that is approved under the activity provider’s (e.g. school's) Safety Management System.

Only if that organisation is donating the money earned by the participant to a charitable cause, e.g. the participant washes cars as a fundraiser every Saturday for the local Ford dealership, who then donate the money earned to the local hospice.

Yes - but how many depends on the section. For the Service section, you can undertake up to three different Service activities if they're organised by you as an individual, or an unlimited amount of activities if these are organised under the umbrella of a service group run by your school or uniformed organisation. For other Sections, you need to negotiate any additional activities with your Award Leader

You can use a different sport in the off-season to make up the time requirements if you need to.

If you're heading overseas for your Residential Project, you'll need to get prior approval from National Office before you leave New Zealand. The exception to this would be trips with Antipodeans Abroad, World Challenge and Youth to Everest which are all pre-approved.

In order to be approved for an overseas Residential Journey, you are expected to:

• Spend five days and four nights away from home;
• Spend time with people you don’t already know; and
• Engage in eight hours of purposeful activity in an unfamiliar setting with these new people. If, however, you are travelling with a school group, club or sports team, and therefore know some of the others in the group, consideration would be given to you if you:

- Stay in individually-billeted accommodation (although this may not be possible in some village settings)

- Are separated into working groups with people you do not know (as a general guide, a ratio of one person that you know for every nine that they do not)

Examples (these also apply to domestic Residential Projects)

Example 1: A school group flies to a Pacific Island to work on rebuilding a community house. There are 10 participants from the school who, although they do see each other at school, are not part of the same peer group. They are separated into smaller groups to work with local residents, they sleep as a group in the village church, and eat with the villagers.

This is very likely to be approved.

Example 2: A representative netball team is going to Melbourne for an under-18 tournament. The team, who has played together in age-grade tournaments for several years, will travel together, stay in a hotel together, practice and socialise together. They play against another team each day.

This is unlikely to be approved.

Example 3: A cultural exchange group goes to Japan for seven days. Each member of the group, regardless of whether they are Award participants or not, will stay with a host family for the duration of the trip (apart from the first and last nights when they stay in a hotel). During the day, the Kiwi students and their Japanese counterparts will visit cultural sites and also attend a Japanese school.

This is very likely to be approved.  However, if the individuals in the group were not being billeted, the daytime activities might not be sufficient on their own to meet the Residential Project criteria.

Bronze - $86.25

Silver $86.25

Gold $115