Duke of Edinburgh Bronze & Silver Expedition

After completing their preparation training, this year’s Duke of Edinburgh Award participants had their eyes on the expedition sections of their awards over the half term break. Our Bronze team needed to complete 2 days walking and 1 night camping to qualify and our Silver team were striving for back-to-back practice and then qualifying expeditions, which meant they had a total of 5 days and 4 nights. In addition to this, we also had 1 Gold participant, who joined the Silver team for the first 2 days, in order to sign off his practice requirements.

With kit checked and rucksacks piled high into the minibus, we set off for the beautiful South Downs. Both teams walked from Birling Gap (next to the Seven Sisters cliffs) up to our campsite in the quaint town of Alfriston. With stunning scenery and shining blue skies, they embarked on their 12km hikes, during which they had to work as a team to navigate the correct route and carry all the kit they would need for the duration of their expeditions. Safe to say that day 1 was a success and lots of fun was had comparing stories around the campfire that evening.

Sadly, the fine weather didn’t stay with us for the rest of the week and both teams’ kit organisation and motivation to push their physical boundaries, were challenged when the mist, rain and, at the tops of the hills, high winds descended! We did enjoy sunny spells and in the end it was easy to say that both teams had more than proven themselves competent in all the necessary assessment criteria.

So… WELL DONE to Shahab, Monika & Tasha for completing their Bronze exped section (& Nikita who joined them for fun); Hana who completed her Silver practice; Hesam, Stephany & Amir Ali who completed their Silver exped section, GOOD LUCK to Arian who will complete his Gold qualifier in the summer break and THANK YOU to Janvier and Jess who supported and assessed the teams throughout the week.

Jan Haines, Houseparent (Metropolitan) & Duke of Edinburgh Lead