by Rachel Mortimer

Duke of Edinburgh, Hillary Award Successes

In 2019, we started offering a dedicated Duke of Edinburgh, Hillary Award as an option for year 11 Health.

We had one class in 2019, two classes in 2020 and one class this year. In the three classes per fortnight, the students set up their online diaries, co-ordinate their Service, Physical Recreation and Skillssections of the award and undergo enough training for their Adventurous Journey to get them through to the Gold Level if they pursue this level. There have been tramps to places such as Stewart Island, the Kepler and even locally in Omarama and Whare Flat.

The students start as direct entrants to Silver Level and we have now had 11 students earn this award; Connor Campbell, Hayley Anderson, Paris Laws, Jack Pearson Howell, Alyssa Gamao, Georgia Coleclough, Mickle Jose, Katie Wink, Jago Armstrong, Guin Wilson and Riley Mortimer.

We have had our first Gold award recipient this year at the recent ceremony attended by our city mayor and our Governor-General, Dame Patsy Reddy. Congratulations to Riley Mortimer. There are some other students who have also started working on their Gold level and we encourage them to continue and finish their journey.