I need gold DofE advice for my expedition

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Get rid of all of the small things. On my practice, I brought along lots of small things (like power banks, bottles of shampoo, etc) that I didn't end up using much because I thought "oh it's only little, it'll be fine" but then on the real expedition, my bag was so much lighter just because I got rid of all of those.

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Other than that, don't pack too much clothing. You can re-wear stuff so long as it's not wet (though don't skimp on the socks!) I think I brought 3 tops, two jumpers (though they were thin so weren't too bulky) and 2 pairs of leggings with one set of night clothes and that did me for the 5 days. You also only really need one set of waterproofs. Also take the small versions of things like deodorant, hairbrushes, toothbrishes, toothpaste, etc if possible.

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If it's things like a first aid kit and cooking stuff that you'll share with your group that's too heavy then you should communicate with your group to see if you can split carrying things. Instead of pots, I remember one person in my group brought a kettle and we all just used that.

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You can also share snacks and things but do be careful about relying on other people for your actual meals (I've heard horror stories). I'd also reccommend bringing dehydrated food for meals rather than those Wayfarer-type ones. They may be a bit less appetising but they're so much lighter.

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In terms of water, I used a water bag that went in my rucksack rather than bulky waterbottles and it was so convenient (apart from the one time I didn't do it up properly and it leaked water all over my stuff 😳) and lighter than the bottles everyone else brought were.

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I also found that it helped to pack each separate category of "thing" into a different labelled plastic bag (like a meals bag, a snacks bag, a day clothes bag, etc). It stopped everything from just being a bundle of *stuff* in my bag.

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If it's the space in the bag rather than the weight of it that's the issue then just upgrading to a bigger bag is really worth it. You should be looking at around 70L.