Last weekend, 33 of our year 11 students participated in the expedition section of their bronze DofE award. The students met at Tring train station on Friday morning and then walked from there to Braid Wood campsite using a combination of different walking trails. This was made more challenging by the fact that students have to carry all of their equipment with them for the weekend, so they were walking with some rather large backpacks.

As well as carrying their equipment, students were required to navigate using OS maps which is the first time some students have had experience of doing this. Despite a few instances of students getting lost here and there, all groups made it to the campsite successfully.

Once at the campsite, tents were pitched and students cooked their evening meal. Once these tasks were completed, students had the rest of the evening free to relax and explore the campsite. To say that they had been walking all day, carrying heavy bags, the students still had a lot of energy by the evening!

After camping for the night, we had breakfast, the campsite was packed up and students set off for another day of walking, this time navigating from the campsite to Berkhamsted train station. Although they were more tired than on the first day, students kept up a good pace and completed the walk in good time.

All students who participated successfully passed the expedition section of their DofE award and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say they all had an enjoyable time, it was an unforgettable weekend and they picked up a lot of new skills.

A big thank you needs to be said to Mr Knowles, Mr Cox and Mr Dowty who all gave up their free time to support the students in completing their expedition.