The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Ceremony

A huge congratulations to our students, who were presented with their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award certificates on Wednesday evening. What an achievement!62 girls celebrated achieving their Bronze Award (for those aged 14+ years). Well done to Charlotte, Lydia, Holly and Tilly for achieving their Silver Award (for those aged 15+years).

An important part of DofE is volunteering work and the girls had touching and entertaining stories to share. Beth worked on a farm over the lambing season and one of her duties was to carefully feed orphaned lambs. Curiously she also made leads to take groups of lambs for walks! Hattie and Rosie explained that they are currently working towards their Silver Awards. Part of this involves visiting elderly residents in Freda Gunton Lodge – every Friday the girls eat lunch with “their” residents and we heard some amusing and moving anecdotes from their time there.

The Boomers group gave a presentation about their Bronze expedition, relating interesting tales of the highs and lows! Highlights for them had involved being out in the countryside with their friends, camping out, eating lots, and decorating their faces with ‘war paint’ (mud)! The girls who were receiving their Silver Awards talked about their canoeing expedition. How, despite hay-fever troubles, they fought their way along the river; overcoming exhaustion, picnic-invasions by cows, wild camping (with no facilities), intimidation antics from swans and a large number of weirs and locks to reach their destination three days later. We are tremendously proud of the level of physical effort and social conscience displayed by the girls and wish them every success with their progression along the remaining DofE.

“For the past 70 years, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award has inspired and transformed the lives of millions of young people from all walks of life. From volunteering to physical activities, life skills to expeditions, achieving a DofE Award is a passport to a brighter future, valued by employers and universities” – The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.