Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Open Gold Report 2008

Members: Fiona Almond, Emily Burnett, Francesca Chen, Graham Howard,  Giselle Hughes, Robert Ingham Clark, Charlie Lingard, Philip Moffat, Hannah Neocleous, Ben Newton, Tobias Phair, Faye Rajab, Yasmin Rajab, Lucy Saville, Nicholas Taylor, Rebecca Taylor, Joseph Wait, Nicholas Ward

Leaders : Heather Bowie, Peter Derrick, Alasdair McBay, Helen Makin, Liz Porter, Olly Rees, Gill Smith, Peter Smith, Gillian Tuddenham, Mark Tuddenham, Will Walker, Claire Wilson

Assessors : Graham Derrick, Nina Derrick

Course Dates : 26 July – 7 August 2008

The course was accommodated at BEG's field quarters at Shackleton Lodge, allowing us to utilise Brathay’s facility to its capacity. Classroom activities made use of BEG’s overhead projector, flipcharts and other resources. The upstairs meeting room was converted to an office where we had several laptops with memorymap software and laminator. Gill Smith provided all the catering as in 2007.

Training was undertaken in the initial half of the course encompassing the aims and objectives set down by the Award. This was interspersed with many team games and activities. A particular focus was put upon navigation and all the groups spent Sunday 27 July practicing and demonstrating these skills on Loughrigg Fell with leaders allocated to each group to assist. All individuals succeeded in training and had sufficient skills to function as a team and complete their practice expedition.

The practice expedition took place in the Coniston Fells on Monday 28 – Wednesday 30 July. There were three groups who walked the same route with staggered starts. Weather was good as they walked across the Blawith Fells to camp at Goat’s Water. Two of the groups were considerably delayed. One member’s fitness was insufficient for the task ahead and another member suffered a recurrence of a previous injury, slowing down the progress of their groups. The Leader team reorganised so that these groups camped lower than planned that night. One member chose at this point to defer the expedition part of the award. The following day one group ascended Old Man of Coniston and Swirl How finishing camping at Red Tarn in thundery, wet weather testing their navigation and team work skills. The leaders decided the other two groups should walk an alternate route more suited to their abilities and they walked around old Man of Coniston, up Tilberthwaite and over towards Red Tarn meeting the other group and camping all together. During this day a member chose to defer this part of the award due to injury. She completed all her training and was able to have this signed off. The next day all groups walked down to Dungeon Ghyll and then were collected and returned to Brathay. All groups accomplished their aims though it was clear that each group had different abilities and would need careful planning to ensure their expedition purpose matched up with these.

This year we decided to utilise some help from the Field Study Council through Claire Wilson to guide and assist the members in coming up with a purpose. On the Wednesday afternoon Claire did a workshop to try and stimulate some thoughts and ideas about each group’s Purpose. This was considered to be very successful and brought something additional to the course

The following two days were far less physical allowing groups to rest and prepare for their main venture. The groups had freedom to select their own aims and routes anywhere within the Lake District. Groups then met the assessors who tailored aims and routes slightly to suit their logistics.

Group 1 –

Aim – The study of Sheep!

Group 2 –

Aim – Man’s Historical interaction with the land

Group 3 –

Aim – To create the best Expeditioner’s Guide

All groups performed admirably exhibiting teamwork, leadership and practical skills in all weather conditions. Everyone completed their proposed journey and fulfilled their own aims. Safety was obviously of paramount importance and each group was served by two supervisors whose work was very much appreciated by both myself and the participants.

The final day was spent preparing and delivering the presentations in a variety of styles. A lot of hard work clearly went into these presentations which this year were improved additionally through the use of a digital projector. The climax of the week was the celebratory dinner (with guests) prepared by Gill whose culinary contributions to the week were fantastic and greatly appreciated.

Many thanks to all who took part.

Mark Tuddenham, Leader