This year - Yr 9 + 10s (of the age 14+) have had the opportunity to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The Award consists of 3 different parts and an Adventurous Journey at the end. You have to do each part 1 hour a week for 3 months and you get to choose one to do for 1 hour a week however for 6 months. The 3 parts include Physical (such as a sport of fitness program), Skill (where you learn or practice a new skill), Service (where you give back to the community in some way). Once you have completed the different parts you get to go on 2x 2 day, 1-night 'Adventurous Journeys' - one to practice and one for an assessment. Every week we have a DoE training, in the place of the 1 hour of mentor on a Monday. This is where you learn skills + train for the Adventurous Journey. During this time, we have been learning about bearings, how to use a compass, learning about first aid, and also how to use different gas cookers where we got to use them to cook with a couple of weeks ago. During this time, we have also been busy planning for our Adventurous Journeys in Term 4. We have been researching achievable distances + estimated timings, places we can camp so we can find out where we are actually going to go! So far we have found out that the Lake Dunstan Walking + Cycling Trail between Cromwell and Clyde seems ideal, so for the practice journey, we have been looking at the walking part of the West Coast Wilderness Trail as they both seem to be reasonably similar!

- Reagan Boniface