D of E

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

Stuart Ereaut

This year marked the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip who created the DofE Award in 1956 to encourage the youth of Great Britain to reconnect with the outdoors. 60 years later and the award is flourishing around the world, including here at Knole Academy. This year marked one of the busiest times for DofE at Knole with students from years 9-13 all completing a level of the award. During previous years our students completed their awards as follows; year 9 students for the Bronze, year 10 for Silver and years 12 and 13 would complete their Gold Award.

It was a chance for the year 11’s to finally complete their DofE Silver award that had started back in 2019 and they were finally able to complete this in June 2021 at Dartmoor. Our students – 19 of them in total – braved wet and windy conditions to complete their Silver Assessed Expedition in terrific and brave fashion. It was a credit to their strength of character to remember their training from 2 years earlier to complete the expedition in such strong fashion. I was incredibly impressed with their growth throughout the expedition. These wonderful memories from this experience will be with them forever.

There are 17 year 12 and 13 students completing their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award this year which is three times the number of students we have ever welcomed on to the award scheme. The Duke of Edinburgh Award works very closely with the International Baccalaureate for the students to complete their volunteering, physical and skills sections. The students excelled on their Practice Expedition to Southern Dartmoor and demonstrated excellent map reading skills in difficult terrain and weather. The students’ assessed expedition was also a brilliant success with the students following part of the route called ‘The Perambulation of the Forest of Dartmoor.’

This route encircles the High Moor of Dartmoor and was walked by 12 Knights in 1240 to map the outline of Crowns Hunting Grounds in Dartmoor. The area is now predominantly owned by the Military and used as a remote training ground. With very few paths to follow the Gold Participants used their map reading and compass skills to navigate the difficult and remote terrain.

This year we are delighted that just over 60 students in year 9 have embarked upon the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. The students have completed a slightly shortened training schedule but have shown massive enthusiasm and excitement for the award. Their Practice Expedition efforts in July was a credit to their dedication with wet and cold conditions failing to put a damper on their heroic spirits.

Their assessed expedition was a great success with all students passing. They showed fantastic map reading skills as well as maturity when making decisions and overcoming obstacles. This year our year 10’s students were able to complete their Bronze DofE Award they started in 2019 and in addition to this started and completed their Silver DofE Award Expeditions. We had 13 year 10 students who spent 3 days in the Ashdown forest in testing conditions and all passed their Expedition Section. Each student showed brilliant teamwork and were eternally enthusiastic no matter how challenging the conditions were.

It has been an absolute pleasure seeing them all finally complete their awards and I look forward to them starting their exciting Gold Journey in year 12.

Knole Academy is very lucky to have several dedicated staff who help with the Duke of Edinburgh Award and devote their evenings and weekends to help our determined students with this life changing experience. In no particular order I would like to thank Mrs Slade, Miss Nimmo, Mr White, Miss Stock, Mrs Walker, Mr Roberts and Mr Wenham. I would also like to pass on special thanks to Mr Massey who for the last few years has been an incredible supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh program at Knole Academy and will be sorely missed.