Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Loretto has a large and active Duke of Edinburgh's Award with up to a quarter of those eligible taking part at any one time. The aim of the Award is to provide an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding personal development programme and so it takes in almost all aspects of extra-curricular school life. Participants also head out into the local community to fulfil the Service part of the Award and so it provides a great balance between bringing together your own skills within the various activities and expedition training offered at Loretto and using your new skills to help others.
The Award is non competitive, voluntary and open to all. It demonstrates commitment to various activities over a long period and is a marathon, not a sprint. The idea is to set your own personal goals and then strive to meet them.
There are three levels of Award: Bronze, Silver and Gold, each requiring increasing commitment and responsibility. Bronze is usually started in 4th form and takes a minimum of six months to complete. Silver (anyone over 15) takes approximately a year and Gold is for those over 16 and takes approximately 18 months to complete.
There are four sections of the Award with an extra section for Gold.
Expedition
Expedition training runs each week throughout the year covering important things such as how to read a map, how to pitch a tent, how to use a stove, what to put in your bag, what to wear, what to eat and first aid. Each level does a practice expedition (two for Gold) and it all leads toward the qualifying expeditions in the summer. We go on expeditions to the Pentlands, the Cheviots, the West Highlands and Mull and they are certainly one of the highlights of the year (apart from the blisters!). At the end of their expedition participants have to produce a report about the experience.
Service
Community service is a fantastic opportunity to learn from and give to others in the local community. Loretto participants have helped out weekly in soup kitchens or at Brownies, they've helped with reading, art or singing at local primary schools, they've worked in local charity shops and they've run recycling programmes. Golds have also helped to train younger ones for their expeditions or helped in the school CCF. The Service section is excellent at developing leadership skills and self confidence as well as a sense of responsibility.
Physical
The idea of this section is to keep active and healthy, not really a problem at Loretto! However the Award is voluntary and must be done in your free time so participants have to pick an extra sport activity on top of their usual games sessions. Sometimes this can be additional training for the firsts or picking up extra skills for next term's sport. Otherwise it can be an excellent opportunity to try something completely different such as running, dancing, sailing, fives or swimming. We encourage and help participants to find a local club if Loretto's extensive activity programme doesn't offer their choice of sport.
Skill
So many Lorettonians are musical that this is often the natural first choice of skill. The skill must be practised over many months and improvement shown so passing music exams or taking part in concerts or pipe band performances fits the bill perfectly. Other popular choices of skill include debating, drama, art, editing the school magazine or learning to drive. Then of course there is the opportunity to take up an entirely new hobby, the list of skills is endless!
Residential
The Golds must undertake a residential project as well as the other sections. This is to broaden their experience in a new setting, away from people they already know. Past residential projects have included cookery, drama or sailing instructor courses, Medlink for those who may want to do medicine at university, the Tall Ships race, conservation weeks and working at children's holiday camps. There are masses of suggestions and opportunities on the Award website (see below).
Loretto is an official Operating Authority of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Our Award Officer is Elspeth Bleakley and the rest of the team consist of Susie Ward, Ian Fox and John Elder. If you want to get involved or have any questions ask one of us or look on the official
Award website: http://www.theaward.org