SCD Students Celebrate DofE Success

18 young people from St Clement Danes School in Chorleywood attended a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on the 15^thof May, where they celebrated achieving their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards. HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh, was in attendance at his first award presentation since inheriting the title. He addressed the people on the stairs and congratulated them on their achievements. He took his time to speak to many of the students in the gardens.

The following students were in attendance on Monday and we congratulate them on their hard work and dedication. Some of the students have had to wait 3 years since the completion of their award to be invited and it was a lovely reunion for them and their invited guests: Jess Moorehouse, Jake Tablada, Samanthan Chapman, Ben Hardman, Alex Brett, Alex Poole, Jessica Benson, Rebecca Benson, Jenna Smith, Francesca Shires, Christopher Lake, Eddie Hardman, James Cox, Dan Clarke, Jacob Smith, Isobel Wilkins, Oliver May, James Cuadra.

Those who achieve a Gold DofE Award will have volunteered for a minimum of 12 months, learnt a skill, improved their fitness, taken part in a week-long residential and planned and undertaken an expedition.

Some of the students collecting their awards had taken on an arduous back-to-back walking expedition in the peak district, whilst Jess did her expedition on horseback. Some of the students took on the challenge of a wild camp in the Lake District, whilst another took on a sailing expedition. The students take on more responsibility for planning what their award entails, making each experience truly unique.

Mr Chis Mark, from the Danes Educational Trust, attended as an invited guest of the region as a thank you for all his hard work and dedication to his role as a verifier. Mr Marks checks every student's Bronze, Silver and Gold award to meet the requirements, before sending the Gold off for a second approval at Windsor. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Marks for all that he does.

Widely acknowledged as the world’s leading achievement award for young people, the DofE programmes enable any young person, aged 14-24, to develop key skills for life and work, such as confidence, commitment and team working.

Amanda Kirby, who is the DofE Manager at St Clement Danes School, attended the presentation to congratulate them on their Awards, commenting, “It’s a fabulous achievement for these young people, showing determination, resilience and growth in the character. It was lovely to be there with them to celebrate at Buckingham Palace.”

St Clement Danes school is proud of its DofE award programme and is always looking for volunteers to support in the smooth running of the expedition, award verifiers and with the admin side of kit collection, issues and maintenance. If you are interested in helping out please contact Amanda Kirby on dofe@scd.herts.sch.uk to find out more.

To find out more about the DofE and how it enables young people to succeed, please visit www.DofE.org .