Completing a Hi5 Award

Ask the young person what they would like to do for their challenge and add this to the challenge sheet. The challenge will be based on an activity or series of activities, which together will take at least 5 hours complete. Their challenge will be printed on their personalised certificate.  

Break this down into 2-4 steps and add these to the challenge sheet. These are things that the young people will achieve as part of their challenge. 

These are typically described using text but may also be described by adding drawings, photos, etc.  

Note: the award can be scribed for the young person, as long as a note is made where this has taken place

There is a minimum commitment of 5 hours of activity for the Hi5 award. The total time they spend on their challenge will be printed on their certificate.

The time can be completed all at once, or broken down into chunks. The total hours should be a whole number, so if they have completed 6 and a half hours of activity, this should be recorded as 6 hours.

The young person is asked to evidence their participation in their challenge. This helps them to show what they’ve done, as well as giving a visual record for them to look back on.

Evidence can be given in any form, and there only needs to be one page of evidence, although they can include as much as they wish.

Evidence can include:

• photos
• videos
• text
• drawings
• art work
• receipts
• tickets
• emails
• texts
• flyers
• invitations
• stickers
• supporting statements
• planning sheets
• newspaper clippings
• social media posts
• research
• anything else relevant

Any personal details that are included in evidence must be redacted before submitting to Youth Scotland.

The level of evidence should match the age and stage of the young person.

The young person needs to reflect on what their Hi5 challenge helped them to do, and whether it helped them a lot, a little or if they feel the same. They do this by ticking the boxes.

They are then invited to reflect and comment on one thing they feel that they did really well.

Someone else then needs to write a special achievement statement for them. This is an opportunity for someone to share a positive statement about the young person’s special achievement in, or unique contribution to, their challenge. This can be written by anyone who saw them complete their challenge – a parent, a teacher, a sibling, a friend, a youth worker or anyone of their choosing

The awards need to be checked to see if they meet all the criteria. This can be done by the person delivering the award, for example a teacher, youth worker or young leader. The criteria of the Hi5 Award are:

• the challenge is clearly described
• the challenge sheets have listed at least two things that the young person has done in their challenge
• the challenge sheet has a minimum of 5 hours of activity recorded
• the review section (‘my challenge has helped me to’ and ‘one thing I did really well’) has been completed
• the achievement statement has been completed
• there is evidence to confirm completion of the challenge

Hi5 Awards must be submitted to Youth Scotland through our online submission platform, Awards Force. Once you have logged into your Awards Force account, you will register the candidate for each award on the Candidate Registration tab. (Please note: the text you provide will be used for the award certificate, so you should ensure that all names are spelled correctly). 

On the Candidate Registration tab, you will be asked to provide the following details about your group: 

• Local Authority Area  
•  Awards Delivery Hub 
• Awards Delivery Group 

You will then provide the following information about the young person who has completed the award: 

• Name of Candidate 
• Challenge Sheet Number 
• Date of birth 
• Postcode 
• Gender 
• Ethnicity 
• Disability

You will then provide information on the challenge completed: 

• Challenge Title 
• Hours spent on Challenge 
• Level of responsibility 
• Evaluation information 

If you have questions or are having trouble accessing your Awards Force account, contact awards@youthscotland.org.uk.  

When completing your candidate registration on Awards Force, you will also be asked for samples of the portfolios from the submission.

We ask for a minimum of 2 samples or 10% of the submission, which ever is greater.

You will need to scan or photograph the challenge sheets, and and use the evidence tab on Awards Force to upload the samples.

These will be standardised to check that the quality of the awards is being upheld. After standardisation you will receive feedback, and you will either have your certificates sent back to you, or you will be asked to make changes and resubmit before this can happen.

Standardisation happens weekly, and certificates will be sent out within two weeks of standardisation.

Once a young person has completed an award this should be celebrated! This might be by sharing on social media or holding a celebration event.

Once they reach 10 years old they can push themselves further and complete a Dynamic Youth Award.