Clifton College Website

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award: Gold

• Two teams of Upper Sixth successfully completed their Gold Qualifying expeditions in 2010. See their news stories from the Brecon Beacons expedition and the Morocco expedition for full details.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award is open to pupils in the Lower Sixth. To achieve this over-subscribed and prestigious Award, pupils must demonstrate a high level of determination, commitment, organisation, teamwork and physical capability. The Gold Award is made up of the following sections: Residential, Volunteering, Physical, Skill and Expedition. All of these sections are explained in more detail on the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards website. Successful participants are presented with their Gold Award in the presence of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at St James’s Palace in London.

The cost of participating in the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award has been kept to a minimum. There is a charge of £19.00 for the Gold information pack and keeping track book as well as £95 to cover all the expedition section costs (pupils do 3 separate residential trips).

The Expedition Section

Probably the most demanding and enjoyable section of the Award is the Expedition section. In this section pupils have to work as a team to plan, prepare and be completely self sufficient on a 4 day hiking/camping expedition (unaccompanied) in the Brecon Beacons or the Atlas mountains in Morocco*. Before pupils are given permission to hike without adult supervision they have to pass their expedition training.

Expedition training consists of a few after-School sessions (see programme below), a day walk on the Mendips and a 5 day trip to Snowdonia that will include a mini practice expedition with staff. If pupils are successful they can then progress onto a 3 day practice expedition in the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The purpose of this practice expedition is to fully prepare the pupils for their qualifying expedition (assessed) in either the Brecon Beacons or the Atlas mountains in Morocco*. Although both the practice expedition and the qualifying expedition involve the pupils walking unaccompanied, staff are always in the area in case of emergencies.

See the success of the latest training expedition in September 2012.

*The cost of the Atlas Mountains expedition in Morocco is not covered in the £95 expedition costs.

Gold expedition kit list.
Gold Expedition programme 2011.
Breakdown of what's expected.

Contact Mr Walker for further information.

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