A record number of over 50 Year 10 students have successfully been able to plan, prepare, navigate and demonstrate camp craft skills to successfully complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme assessed expedition.
Students walked just over 10 miles each day, navigating their way around Staffordshire’s Cannock Chase area, demonstrating team work, resilience and determination. Each team has worked hard over their time through training sessions, and then on to the expedition section of the award, and they have every reason to be proud of their themselves and their achievement.
Meanwhile, the students continue to work hard to upload evidence for the skills, volunteering and physical sections of the award and will soon be ready to get their assessors to fill in the paper work so they can have each section signed off, verified and completed so certificates can be awarded. The deadline for this is 30 September for all who would like to celebrate their achievement as a team.
Angie Brough, Duke of Edinburgh Co-Ordinator, said: “It has been a huge logistical effort to get every child through the expedition element but we’ve all got there and are delighted. The award allows for later progression and looks great on job applications and UCAS forms.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “We had a decision to make on the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and the sheer scale of entrants meant we could not camp overnight due to over-commitment with the Silver as well as reduced volunteers from outside of school. The DoE central team see this pattern nationally and so have adapted their criteria. Undoubtedly, the high numbers stem from the COVID backlog so did we limit at 25 or allow everyone to come along – we think we got the call right.”
