D of E Expedition 2024

Year 10 Bronze Expedition

25 year 10s completed their Bronze assessed expedition at the end of June. These students completed two days of hiking through the countryside around East Grinstead, walking around 10km both days while carrying their expedition rucksacks with all their stuff and navigating their way around the route (and on occasion having to fix their navigation errors!).

All groups faced their own challenges at different points but were able to pull together and really work as a team, supporting each other and encouraging each other as well as solving problems on the go! We were very fortunate to have some exceptional weather for the entire duration of our Bronze Expedition, adding to the success of the expedition! The students really were a credit to themselves and the school.

Gold DofE Practice Expedition

Over the weekend we took 13 of the year 12s up to North Wales to complete their practice expedition for their Gold DofE.

Students then complete 4 days of hiking across Snowdonia, a challenging feat without the weight of the expedition rucksacks. Students complete a full day of navigation practice with Blue Peris staff who train them during day 1 of the route. The following three days of the expedition, students navigate themselves across the route. Our students end up walking around 45km across the 4 days expedition.

We were incredibly fortunate to have two exceptional groups this year, while it was a shock to the system on day 1 for the students, they all completed the entire route of the practice expedition and did it with smiles on their faces. We also had some excellent singers amongst the group (despite patches of terrible timing) with Country Roads and Let it Go being big karaoke hits on the drive back home last night.

The Blue Peris staff that we work with throughout repeatedly complimented us on our students, how they were incredibly polite and well behaved and how they had done exceptionally well throughout.

The students have really outdone themselves, and really have been fantastic representatives of the school the entire time. We even managed to squeeze in the Euros final at the campsite on Sunday!