Celebration of DofE Successes
Once again we have seen a fantastic year for pupils involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme. This year a total of 148 pupils from the Fifth and Sixth Forms have achieved success in the Award. Ninety-six Bronze Awards and thirty-one Silver Awards were presented to pupils by Peter Fleet, the London Regional Director for DofE on Monday 17 November at School. In addition, a further twenty-one pupils will be presented with their Gold Awards at special ceremonies held at St James’ Palace.
After presenting the successful students with their badges, Peter Fleet also spoke about the long-term benefits of the Award. He spoke of his own experiences with the Award, including his memories of working for Redbridge. Afterwards he said, “Bancroft’s School represents one of the best examples of DofE delivery in schools in the capital. Bancroft’s understand the value of DofE to its students and how it perfectly complements academic attainment and raises level of achievement. As a charity we often see the impact DofE participation has on student’s progress and prospects in terms of accessing university, apprenticeships, a job and career. I congratulate Bancroft’s School on their significant success with our programme and appreciate the value placed on it by the Head, Governors and teaching staff.”
OB and Gold Award holder Matthew Tembey spoke of the challenges he had faced and undoubted life skills he had gained while working towards his Gold Award: from his voluntary work to the demands of the expedition to Snowdonia.
In addition to these achievements, during the recent October half term thirty U6 pupils who are working towards their Gold Awards spent a week in Snowdonia on their expedition. Although the expedition section, which includes a night of wild camping, is meant to be tough this year’s cohort faced another challenge: the conditions presented by Hurricane Gonzalo which forced the students to delay the start of the expeditions and reconsider their routes.
The evening was a fitting celebration of the dedication and work put in by these Bancroftians over the past year and also a tribute to the support given by their parents and members of staff at the School.
