This year The Friary School enrolled 53 pupils onto the silver DofE Award with 6 x Sixth Formers, 3 x Y11s and 44 x Y10s.
Having spent many weeks training and preparing for the practice expedition, on the weekend of the 31st March to 2nd April the students successful overcame the trek from
Longnor Market Square to Rowsley on their 3 day expedition.
Day One saw them navigate from Longnor to Hulme End. The weather was kind to them with only light showers in the morning and then overcast for the rest of the day and they camped at Hulme End for the first night in the beautiful surroundings.
Day Two saw them navigate from Hulme End to Over Haddon and good weather made the physical and mental challenge easier to power on through though sleep was a most welcome friend.
Day Three was gloriously sunny and the students hit every check point bang on schedule and there were huge celebrations with parents as they met up at journey’s end.
Many thanks go to the volunteers who give up so much time to help prepare and guide the pupils through the award with weekly meetings and then giving up their weekends to make the expeditions possible: Mrs Brough, Mr Trahearn, Miss Dye, Miss Massey, Mrs Williamson, Mr Checkland and Miss Lake to name a few…
The group now go on to plan the final part of their assessed trek which for Y10 runs 5th – 7th May and for Y11 and Sixth Formers later in the Summer Term once exams are out of the way.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “The DofE scheme is a wonderful opportunity to build up the skills of team work and resilience. It is fun, but it is tough, and receiving huge credit from employers and university means the qualification is well worth getting. We are fortunate we have staff who are willing to take on the extra responsibility to lead the expeditions and parents who offer all the encouragement and support to make them such a success.”
