Brentwoodian 2019

100 Duke of Edinburgh's Award Silver Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants have had an extremely successful year. Twenty- three boys and twenty-seven girls from the Fourth Year completed their practice expedition in the Ashdown Forest and an assessed expedition in the rolling hills of the South Downs. In the lead-up to their expeditions, they attended regular training sessions covering essential expedition skills such as First Aid, navigation and campcraft. They also worked in their groups to plan their routes using the new eDofE mapping software. During their two expeditions, they had to navigate their way along countless footpaths, hilltops, woodlands and through many fields, solving navigational problems, building on their teamwork and keeping the group morale high. This was particularly important during periods of both wet and hot weather which challenged their skills and morale. All participants continued to enhance their skills by learning how to be more efficient with their packing, route-planning and camp craft. The Expedition Section is only one section of the Award and, in addition to the expedition, the participants have also been busy developing new skills, improving their fitness and helping out in local communities as part of their Skill, Physical and Volunteering Sections. Activities have included helping out in charity shops, libraries, sports clubs and theatre groups and the participants should be thanked and feel proud of their contributions to the local community. By Miss Preston After a good night’s sleep in the local youth hostel, Group 4 began their mission to complete arguably one of the toughest treks across the Peak District. The first day was testing. Cam Lindsay set a solid pace for the team which allowed a healthy time for lunch. The final part of the day was a very steep descent, so steep in fact that a new technique invented by Lewis Matthews named ‘slidy bum time’ was adopted by the team. Day 2 was by far the hardest day; it began with an extremely steep climb, much to Matt Jennings delight!? The whole day seemed to never finish, something Luke Spooner made the group well aware of ! In total, Max Citroen claimed it was a 30km day which was mentally and physically straining. By the third day our bodies were tiring but our bags were getting lighter as we were slowly eating through our food reserves. Thankfully it was a fairly flat day which Ryan Aston enjoyed celebrating at the final campsite of the trip. By the final day the finishing line was in sight; everyone was determined to finish the walk so much so that not a single word was said on a 5km stretch up a slow incline hill which seemed to go on forever. When finally reaching the finish Mr Carr, our assessor, was tremendously proud of our group and we were rewarded with a well- deserved McDonald’s on the way back home. Overall, it was a tough experience but it was something that we would never forget. Gold