Erin Seils|
A group of pupils from St Andrew’s and St Bride’s have been completing sections of the Duke of Edinburgh Award since October 2015. Mr Clark oversaw the programme and was supported by other volunteering members of teaching staff, who helped to keep the pupils on track.
There are 4 parts to the award: Physical, Skill, Volunteering and Expedition.
The possible combinations of activities you could complete to earn the Duke of Edinburgh Award are endless. Personally I chose to do running for the Physical section. I used an app called “RunKeeper” to record my distance, time and average speed for each run. I tended to run twice a week for roughly half an hour each time but this could be spread out over six 10 minute runs depending on individual preferences.
I have been helping to lead a local Brownie pack in order to complete the volunteering segment of the award. While the club runs for an hour and a half, longer than is needed to complete the section, the extra 30 minutes is definitely not a hardship. Volunteering can actually be very enjoyable. I have developed my skills in leadership and teamwork and I also get to teach young people valuable life skills.
For the skill section of the award I have been writing articles for this very newspaper and in the process learning loads of interesting new things about many different topics. For example, technology, politics and current events.
The expedition section of the award is completed in groups of 4 – 7 people. Those taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh award this year were split into 4 groups.
We attended 2 training days on the 4th and 5th of June, before the practice expedition the following week, where members of “Outdoor Adventures” taught us important skills that were essential in completing our expedition. We rotated around 4 different stations in our groups including food, bag packing, pitching tents and team building. We came back together to look at some maps before planning our separate routes for each group.
At the food station we learned about food products that last while unrefrigerated and that would be light and fit in our rucksacks without too much difficulty. We also learned how to use “Trangia” camping stoves to cook our food.
When it was our group’s turn to have a look at the maps, we were taught how to use a compass, accurately measure distances from a map using string and plan a route.
We discovered how useful airtight vacuum bags were when trying to compress clothes to fit into a rucksack and make sure that everything was totally waterproofed at the bag packing station.
We also learned how to pitch tents without damaging any equipment. For example learning that poles should be pushed into the tent rather than pulled to avoid causing them to snap.
Team-building activities helped our group to bond and learn how to work together to complete tasks.
We all had an early start on the 12th of June, getting to the school for 9 am to check our rucksacks contained everything we needed for the practice expedition. We hopped on the mini bus bright eyed and bushy tailed and headed to the Campsies to begin our walk to the campsite at Auchengillan. While it definitely wasn’t a walk in the park, or at least not a flat park, we made it eventually. We set up our tents before cooking our meal of pasta with a tomato sauce which turned to out to be rather delicious. Finally, we had a relaxing end to the day, toasting some marshmallows around the campfire before heading to bed. However we had another early rise the next day in order to make it back to the mini bus in time to be back at the school for around 4:30 pm.
I think the others will agree that we all needed a few days to recuperate after carrying around a heavy rucksack for two days but we had to make it quick as we were heading to the Pentland Hills the following week to carry out our final expedition. The practice prepared us quite well for the walking side of things but the leaders from “Outdoor Adventures” were going to be much further away than before. This prospect was rather daunting. To add to this, we had another goal to fulfil, other than just staying hydrated and not getting lost.
My group’s qualifying expedition aim was to learn about man-made features in the Pentland Hills, such as reservoirs and forts. Some other groups chose to do a general list of A-Z for things they saw while on the walk.
At the end of our final expedition we got a delicious treat, as a reward for completing both expeditions, at Krispy Kreme on the way home from Edinburgh.
One of the best things about the Duke of Edinburgh award is that there are lots of different ways to complete each section. So if you think walking isn’t really your thing, as long as the rest of your team is comfortable with it, you could even give canoeing or horse riding a go.
It’s been a long process but this year’s group of Duke of Edinburgh participants have almost achieved their Bronze award and will be presented with their awards in February 2017.
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