Going for Gold
8th June 20
Y13 student Luca is the first KAS student to achieve their Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. Take up of DofE awards has been growing and we’re proud of Luca’s achievement and hope it will be the first of many. We asked him about the experience:
Q. Taking on the Gold award is quite a challenge – what made you want to do it?
A. I wanted to do the Gold Duke of Edinburgh to prove to myself that I was capable of achieving the award, but also to complete the whole set as I’d done Bronze and Silver and wanted to have all three!
Q. What elements did you have to compete in order to achieve your Gold Award?
A. There are four sections to complete for Gold DofE. You have to do 12 months of regular volunteering and 12 months of either a physical activity or a new skill and then six months of the other. You also have to complete a residential stay for five nights where you complete community projects. I went on the school trip to Namibia where we helped to renovate a school so this counted as my residential volunteering. You also have to complete an expedition.
Q. What was the most difficult part of the Gold Award?
A. The most challenging aspect for me was keeping up with all the requirements. Twelve months is a long time and you have to make sure you are doing your activities every week in order to finish the award in the 12 month time frame.
Q. What was the best thing about the Gold Award?
A. The best part of the award was the expedition. I love the outdoors and hiking, so I really enjoyed walking through the Scottish highlands with my friends. Another great part of the Award was being able to help out by volunteering and giving my time to a good cause.
Q. Where did you on your expedition and how was it?
A. We went to the Scottish highlands for our expedition. Despite the bad weather, the scenery and nature around us was beautiful. For most of our journey we didn’t see any other people around us and that was unusual, as we were used to London-like crowds. The expedition as a whole was great and the whole team worked well together.
Q. Apart from ‘the Award’, personally what do you think you’ve got out of taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme?
A. I feel like I have become more resilient and independent. We had some of the worst weather on our expedition, however we carried on through and completed what we had set out to do.
Q. How does it feel to be the first King Alfred Student to complete the Gold Award?
A. I feel proud to have been one of the first to complete the award and hopefully many more students will do the same as it is a wonderful experience.
