Our Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s groups were the final ones to undertake their qualifying expedition this week. Mr Taylor, our DofE manager, pulled on his rather well worn boots for the last time and accompanied our determined young people on their adventure..

Derwent Heritage Trail DofE Silver Qualifying Expedition 10/12 July 2018

Tuesday 10th July saw the last of this year’s New Bridge expeditions set off – this time it was the turn of the Silver students to begin their 3 day qualifier..

The weather was in stark contrast to the practice expedition the students had undertaken in April where constant torrential rain was the order of the day.The sun and heat did bring its own problems, though. Fortunately the Derwent Heritage Trail follows the valley floor where sections allow the traveller some shelter from the sun and a welcome dip of the hat in the river’s cool waters was always welcome..

The groups taking part were differentiated to reflect the varying needs of the individual students. We had a group with a lot of staff, a group with less and an independent group who were distantly supervised by walkie-talkie (this was a first for us)..

The groups followed the same route, approaching from different directions and passing somewhere in the middle. Also, to provide more autonomy and independence, the groups used different campsites..

The problem of how the staff could watch the England match was solved, thanks to an iPad propped up by tins of rice pudding and a strong signal!

This was a really enjoyable and positive experience for all those involved. As ever, the students amazed and surprised us every step of the way..

If only the England match could have been as successful!

Gavin Taylor
DofE Manager

Well done, everyone, what a brilliant achievement!!! Once again, we’re extremely grateful to all our fantastic staff for supporting our young people and making yet another expedition possible – we’re sure they’ll be very relieved to put their boots away….for a few months at least!

You can view all the pictures of the expedition in our Facebook album here and you can find out more about the DofE Award Scheme at New Bridge here and read about all our previous expeditions.