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Year 9 DofE Bronze AWard
Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award 2020-2021
The application window for the Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Bronze Award 2020-2021 has now closed, and in a time of unprecedented firsts, the interest and response has, indeed, been unprecedented!
Mr Reed, our inschool DofE Manager, English Teacher and Assistant Pastoral Lead, writes:
Our initial allocation of 55 places was filled within 10 minutes of the window opening on Monday 9 November 2020 and, having extended the opportunity to sign-up, we have subsequently ended up with 85 participants; a record number for Deer Park!
I'm told that it is as a result of our past successes that we receive such a positive response from both pupils and parents, and given the efforts and lengths exhausted this year, in ensuring that our most recent cohort, now in Year 10, could complete their final Training (read about their Training Day) and Expedition (read about their Expedition weekend), I am minded to agree.
Having been one of the first schools to undertake the final Expedition (September 2020), following the lifting of initial lockdown restrictions, we were extremely proud and impressed to see all 57 of our 2019-2020 participants successfully complete this element of their award, in what were strange, challenging and delicate circumstances. I was really grateful for the efforts from pupils, staff and parents alike, and the following quote from No Limits (our Approved Activity Provider) underlines how our efforts were appreciated beyond the school itself.
'No Limits understand and appreciated the apprehension schools have in starting back delivering their DofE provision. Here at No Limits we worked hard to make our expeditions and staff Covid secure to help give confidence to SLTs, teachers and parents, that we could deliver safely in the current environment.
We were overjoyed when Deer Park School’s SLT came back with the go ahead to deliver their Bronze Expedition, the first out of over 50 schools we work with.
Glynn Reed, along with No Limits, worked tirelessly to make sure everything was in place for a Covid secure delivery and with a great deal of support from parents and students…we succeeded!
The need for children to get outdoors and interact with their friends is more important than ever at the moment. The Bronze pupils at Deer Park achieved what, at the beginning of the first lockdown, we didn’t think was going to be possible, for quite a long time. A huge well done to everyone involved!'
It is great to see so many of our pupils being prepared to take themselves out of their comfort zones and challenge themselves to achieve more. Their engagement in The Duke of Edinburgh Award reflects our commitment to building their learning power: they will develop new skills, lead and contribute to teams and volunteer to help others.
Chiquita Henson, Headteacher