Our Year 9 and 10 students have had an active year working towards their Bronze and Silver DofE Awards. They have learnt new skills, volunteered in a variety of ways and taken part in both practice and qualifying expeditions. Lola S (Year 9) and Kirat G (Year 10) tell us in their own words, what a fun and worthwhile experience DofE has been for them.

Bronze Award - Lola S, Year 9

I started working towards my Bronze Award this year and completed a practice weekend and a qualifier expedition. The practice taught me lots of skills that I used during the qualifier expedition to the Chiltern Hills including how to put up a tent, cook on a gas stove and how to read a map.

The walks on the expedition seemed really long but my group were very encouraging and we kept each other going. We were so tired that we all slept from 10pm to 6am! DofE has been a great experience and I’m so glad I can say I did it!

Silver Award - Kirat G, Year 10

Over the past year, I have been working towards achieving my Silver Duke of Edinburgh award. The award requires me to complete six months of volunteering, six months of either the skills or physical sections, and three months of the other. For my volunteering, I have been helping a brownie unit which is a part of the charity Girlguiding. I have enjoyed working with the girls and helping them achieve their badges.

For my physical section I chose netball, which has been an enjoyable activity for me ever since I started at Queenswood and I have managed to improve my defensive skills, which will benefit me in matches next year. For my skills section, I chose Speech and Drama, an activity that I started in year 8 and have thoroughly enjoyed since. My goal was to complete my Grade 5 Lamda, which I achieved in May.

I also had to complete a 3 day walking expedition with 2 days camping. For my Qualifier expedition, we went to Wye Valley in Wales. After a 4 hour coach journey and a delicious breakfast in a haunted castle, we were all ready to go. We had to walk for 7 hours each day and my group also created a vlog as our aim. We walked in the sun, in the rain and practically experienced every season in 3 days. We returned back to school on Wednesday, exhausted, in pain, but accomplished - knowing that we had passed.

All in all, we had a great time and I would recommend trying DofE to anyone interested.