During May half-term, 10 Year 10 students celebrated as they reached the final destination of a 3-day hike at Dunwich on the Suffolk coast.  They did so knowing that, following a lengthy discussion with their assessor (who had been watching them for the 3 days),  they had competently completed 19 of the 20 conditions of a DofE silver expedition.   However, saying that doesn't reflect what an outstanding achievement these students have made.

In order to get to this point, the students have completed a training weekend, a practice expedition and the qualifying expedition.  They do this carrying everything they need for the duration of the expedition (tents, stoves, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, food, clothes, personal items etc), the only thing we can give them is water and they are not able to buy anything extra along the way. 

Even this doesn't really reflect exactly what they have done ... in more basic terms they have completed 7 nights of camping & walked a minimum of 77km as well as planning & cooking all of their meals & snacks.  They have also attended weekly DofE sessions to learn; map reading, navigation, camp craft including cooking their own food, meal planning, first aid, teamwork and problem solving.  

The "Expedition Section" of the DofE award isn't complete at Silver until they have written and delivered a presentation about their expedition; we will use the remaining weeks next half term to complete this so that this section can be signed off this school year.

Ta-Da!!  Silver DofE complete ... Well no!!  This is just ¼ of it!

In addition to this any student who has already been awarded DofE Bronze, will also need to complete a minimum of 260 hours Volunteering and 390 hours combined Physical and Skills activities, all of which have to be completed outside of the school standard day.   Any student starting at Silver, without Bronze will have to do these sections for longer.

Some of our students will have achieved all of this by the time we break for summer alongside (for some of them) extensive involvement in other aspects of wider school life and the first year of GCSE.  All of this is completed in their own time.  We feel this is and they are totally amazing!!!!