The Lower Sixth Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award group headed for Wales on Friday 21st November eagerly anticipating their expedition training weekend. Over Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd November students were fully immersed in developing their skills for survival including navigation, cooking, camping, first aid and teamwork.
The spacious Dolygaer Lodge offered excellent accommodation for the large group and the students enjoyed organising their own meals with a big supermarket shop and access to all the enormous catering pans. The lodge is located in beautiful surroundings with immediate access to gorgeous countryside and plenty of practical adaptations for muddy boots and wet gear!
Maths teacher and qualified DofE Mountain Leader, Duncan Laurie-Pile, who was responsible for a group of six students, commented “It was a really nice buzz. We had some challenging weather in the morning on Saturday but in the afternoon the sun came out. We saw some great waterfalls, we got up high and had a great view of the sunset. We did a planned descent and traversed through the woods at night which the students were loving. In my group we did a 16.5km walk with 800m of ascent, we did loads of compass work, we looked at the terrain and the weather. Everyone was pretty tired but quite happy and satisfied; clearly having a lovely time and being stretched and challenged.”
Megan (Lower Sixth) enthused, “I loved the team spirit and how we all kept motivating each other even when it was raining non-stop. The expeditions are an important part because of the real-life skills you learn along the way like navigation, teamwork, communication and first aid. The Gold award is an amazing experience though it gets hard sometimes, finishing the training made me feel proud. I can’t wait to do another practice.”
Our enthusiastic adventurers are the largest Gold Award cohort that we have led at the school and Outdoor Activities Manager, Isaac Walker, is delighted to discover so much interest in this valuable programme. The DofE Award at Gold level requires participants to undertake 12 months of volunteering, a physical section and a skills section (one for 12 months and one for six months), a five-day, four-night residential and a four-day, three-night expedition. For those who have not completed the Silver Award a further six months are required for either volunteering or the longer of skills or physical.
At Leighton Park the extensive co-curricular programme provides a wide variety of opportunities to fulfil the physical and skills sections. Volunteering can be achieved through the Lower Sixth Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) timetabled sessions with options to read in local primary schools, deliver sports education to KS2 pupils through swimming lessons and our partnership Festivals of Sport or by joining one of the Sixth Form charity-focussed hobbies such as Amicus, Amnesty International or Rotary Interact.
The DofE scheme is compulsory at Bronze level in Year 9 to give our students a taste of the experience before being offered at Silver for Years 10 and 11 and at Gold in Sixth Form, as participants for the top Award must be 16-25 years old.
Having completed their training successfully, this year’s Lower Sixth Gold Award cohort will be undertaking their practice expedition during May and their final expedition in the October 2026 half term. Good luck everyone!
See more photos from the weekend in our online album.
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