Coopers' & Coborn School DofE Achievements

The Coopers’ Company and Coborn school has been participating in the DofE award since 2012 when Mr Threadgold, the then Deputy Head, started delivering it with the help of a grant from the Company.

A group of dedicated staff aslo volunteered their time to deliver the Bronze award and run the expedition for 30 students. With the help of Mrs Phillips and Mrs Hill we expanded it to include the Silver award with another 20 students.

In 2016 we offered the Gold award to Sixth Form students and seven became participants. Their expedition took them to areas that were deemed “wild country” and we made the decision to enter into a partnership with Sam Sykes Ltd based in the Lake District. This proved to be an excellent decision as the students had an incredible experience as they experienced wilderness camping up in the hills by the side of a small lake with no one else for company.

We also remodelled our delivery method for the Bronze award since entering into this partnership

and as a result we were able to accept 90 students last year. This gave us a greater opportunity to encourage inclusive student development and fully realise the school motto.

We are exceptionally proud of the two participants who successfully completed their Gold award; Jessica Ward and Ryan Pinkney who have completed all three levels of their award at Coopers’. In May of this year Jessica went to Buckingham Palace to receive her award, a very special day.

We are really pleased that we currently have 203 students participating in DofE; 14 Gold students in Year 13 due to complete their expedition in July, 11 Gold students in Year 12 who are in the second term of their award, 90 Year 10 students completing their Bronze award and 88 Year 9 students who have just started their Bronze. I hope that as cohorts develop, more Bronze students will start their Gold award when they join the Sixth form.

With 203 students currently participating they will have given up at least 3,331 hours helping others this year. This hugely beneficial to the people concerned, but I hope it embeds a vital personal ethos in our students which that they will continue to use during their time at Coopers’ as well as in the rest of their adult lives.

I am really proud of our team of dedicated staff who offer the DofE award to so many students. It enables our students to become more rounded people, and has improved their transferable “soft” skills that will enable them to be better citizens and make a real difference to the community around them, thus truly making them “Love as Brethren”.