Last weekend, 47 students from Year 9 completed their Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award qualifying expedition with two days’ walking in the Lancashire countryside near Clitheroe.
The students had to be self-sufficient in their teams of 5 or 6. They planned their routes, did all their own navigating, carried their own camping equipment and supplies, cooked their own evening meals on their camp stoves and put up and slept overnight in their own tents. They also carried out a project investigating the medieval ruins of Sawley Abbey. All 47 passed with flying colours.
The students had gained valuable experience and learned lessons from their training walks in the countryside close to school and their practice expedition in the Rivington area in June. Their qualifying expedition went smoothly as they put their experience to the test.
On the first day, teams walked from Sawley Abbey to Waddow Hall Campsite. Some teams pushed themselves further by starting at the village of Worston. On Day 2, we walked to Stonyhurst College via the fields, woods and riverbanks to the west of Clitheroe.
Prior to their expedition, the students have been working on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award through year 9, organising and completing their own activities in three categories:- Skill, Physical and Volunteering, over periods of 3 or 6 months. Some of their activities have included running regularly with the school’s Running Club, volunteering in childrens’ sports clubs or in local primary schools or at mosque and learning a musical instrument or a foreign language in their own time. They have really had a varied experience.
Most importantly perhaps, the students have developed and repeatedly shown teamwork, independence and resilience, organising and planning their own activities, showing commitment in getting them done and supporting each other with smiles on their faces. They have persevered resiliently when things have gone against them and they will carry these qualities and maturity with them in their GCSE studies and in all that they do after that. They will also have the opportunity to complete their Silver Award in Year 10. Congratulations and very well done!
