More than 40 students from Years 9, 10 and 11 ventured out into the wilderness to complete the expedition section of their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. They spent two nights away camping in Kilve, learning a wealth of new skills, such as map reading, route plotting, pitching tents, cooking, and staying safe in the countryside. It was wonderful to see so many students push themselves out of their comfort zones and try something new.
They worked brilliantly in their teams and even within this short amount of time, showed a huge development in their confidence and independence. Saturday and Sunday involved working as a team to navigate around the local terrain on a route they planned the evening before, only meeting staff at pre-selected check points. They had to communicate effectively with each other to make sure they chose the right paths and to get themselves back on track if they made a wrong turn (which did inevitably happen on occasions). It was fantastic to see them support each other when team members were struggling and to see so much drive and determination in such a challenging expedition.
Both Mrs Batchelor and Mr Evemy are incredibly proud of all of our DofE students and look forward to supporting them through their Silver Award next year, as well as welcoming our new Year 9s when they sign up in the new school year. We would also like to thank all the parents who supported their children throughout the award and all the staff members who joined us for the weekend. Without you all we would not be able to provide such a wonderful experience for our students.
Students were challenged during their expedition to create some promotional material which might inspire the next group to take part. Here is one of the entries, it certainly looks like they enjoyed themselves!
Watch here
Well done all.
Mr Evemy
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