Celebrating Duke of Edinburgh’s Award success
The 16th annual Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Presentation Evening celebrated the hard work of the school’s pupils who took part at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels this year.
Following a delicious buffet in the Sixth Form Centre, Head Mrs Sarah Capewell welcomed a packed audience of parents, pupils, volunteers and staff to the Main Hall.
Former SGS parent and long-time volunteer David Kent compered the evening. David recalled the impact the DofE scheme had for his own children and their continued enjoyment of expedition adventures as adults.
A video looking back at the SGS DofE year was played on the screen before a group of students who have completed the Gold Award spoke about their experience.
Climber, fell runner and author Jon Proctor spoke about the process of understanding risk, planning and then committing to the adventure, learning this through the DofE scheme and then going on to apply this to bigger adventures across the world. He shared stories from some of his own expeditions in challenging and unique environments in the UK and further afield.
Jon congratulated the pupils on their success and presented the certificates for which they had worked so hard in the different sections – Volunteering, Physical, Skill and Expedition.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’s North West Manager Kelly Appleton then presented the five Special Awards: Volunteering, Physical, Skill, Expedition Team and the Ruth Groves Award.
The enormous contribution made by the expedition volunteers was recognised with special awards for long-time volunteer Norman Rice and to the youngest volunteer former pupil Thomas Gregory (OS 2022).
The evening closed with Miss Laura Turner, the school’s Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator, thanking all the volunteers and the parents for their support.
