Duke of Edinburgh Award at the Fort

We are now five years into a highly ambitious exercise to encourage all Year 9 students to undertake the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award program creates opportunities for Year 9 students to challenge themselves by learning new skills, work with and support their community through service, learn more about themselves and their peers and develop their skills for teamwork, leadership, and resilience, especially on their adventurous journey.

We believe the Year 9 Camp Adventurous journey to Colo River at Somerset this year to be a vital experience in your child’s journey to adulthood. And we wish your child every success in this adventure. A big thank you to Ms Propsting YA and Mr. Wilkinson AYA and Mr. Latimer for their work in organising the Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh Bronze training day and the camp.

We encourage students in the senior years to continue into the Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh programs.  We have witnessed the rewards of this program for our senior students in terms of their personal growth and more recently we have seen the advantage this gives our students in applying for Early Entry Scheme University places and Academic scholarships, while our students are still completing their HSC course.

These early entry schemes and academic scholarships are no longer just looking for students who have the ‘perfect ATAR’.  University Admissions are asking applicants to demonstrate what leadership and service activities they have been involved in while in Year 11 and 12 and what skills and qualities they have developed from participating in these activities and their influence on their community.

Year 8 students, Parents and Caregivers will be invited to an information session in Term 4 to find out more about what this program offers and how it works in Year 9.

Our program coordinators: Mr. Latimer (Bronze), Ms. Thompson (Silver) and Mr. O’Neill (Gold)are to be congratulated for the amazing work they have done this year to support our students to participate in this award scheme. Our teaching staff Ms. Xu, Ms Fluitsma and Mr. Vaughan have also volunteered their weekends and dedicated many hours alongside Ms. Thompson and Mr. O’Neill to take our Silver and Gold Award students on some exciting and challenging expeditions.

Many of our students would have struggled to complete the paperwork and diary requirements without the support of our highly valued office staff, Natalie Page, Diana Choi and Jo Imhof, who have worked tirelessly to help our students to participate in these award programs.

Penelope Starr

Head Teacher Wellbeing