Here at Abbey Hill College we have been running the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme for many years, which is quite simply the world’s leading youth achievement award! Millions of young people aged 14-24 have the opportunity to achieve the awards throughout the world.

Our students complete physical, voluntary, skills, expedition and residential units to complete the award and achieve a level of independence that challenges, excites and develops them.

There are three levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold and learners have progressively harder challenges to move through the awards. Some examples of activities our learners do are below;

Gym sessions, hillwalking, running and football

Art, care of the environment, cooking, woodwork

Raising funds for Charities i.e Dougie Mac

Expedition preparation – camp craft, navigation, map reading.

It’s a challenging and rewarding programme of self-development.

You can find out more about DofE here.

As one of learners said on a recent hill walking practice on the Roaches:  ‘I can’t slow down I’m having too much fun!’