Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award Achievements Celebrated
13 Feb
Over 300 pupils, parents, invited guests and staff gathered together on Thursday 8 February for the College’s annual Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Celebration Evening.
It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on pupils’ achievements in Outdoor Education and in particular to celebrate those who have successfully completed their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. It was particularly special to welcome a number of families, where multiple siblings have completed the award.
Will Bower, Head of Outdoor Education, began the evening by summarising the last year. He spoke about the College’s commitment to Outdoor Education and the variety of activities pupils take part in, including orienteering, climbing, walks offsite, bushcraft and the John Muir Award. He talked about the commitment pupils make in undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the independence, perseverance, strength of character and sense of humour they show and how seeing their achievements in such a wide variety of activities is a great privilege.
Then the College was delighted to welcome special guest, Olympic Silver Medallist and former Director of DofE Central England, Phil Brown. Phil spoke honestly and humorously about his experiences as part of the team who won the 4 x 400m Relay Silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. He had some amusing stories regarding the highs and lows along the way. He highlighted the significance of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for personal development and reminded pupils of the skills and experience they’ve picked up that will aid them in future life.
Other special guests at the evening included Richard Lea from PAU Expeditions, Keir Mulcahey from the DofE Operations Office and Tamsin Frost our Award Verifier. We were delighted they were able to join us in celebrating pupils’ achievements.
Across the evening, pupils were presented with their Certificates to mark the completion of their Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.
Mr Bower, commented, “The Awards celebration was a superb opportunity to get together to celebrate the achievements of our young people. I am always impressed by the breadth of their endeavour to do their Awards and to do them well!”
There is still time for anyone who has not quite completed their award to get it finished. Pupils are encouraged to attend the Tuesday lunchtime eDofE drop-in clinics in LG02 for help.