Record number of Year 11s Take on DofE Silver Expedition in Dorset
Fifty five intrepid Year 11s travelled to Dorset on Friday for their DofE expedition. Starting in Acton, near Swanage, the group covered over 14km a day of hilly terrain, basing themselves at a campsite in East Creech. They experienced all sorts of weather including sun, rain, wind, hail and sleet, especially on day two where there were muddy puddles and paths aplenty, with reports of students getting stuck in the mud and even one losing a shoe and face planting into the mud! At night, the beautiful clear skies made for great star gazing (Orion’s Belt clearly visible) while temperatures dropped to a chilly 2 degrees C, making sleeping even more difficult.
On Sunday, the wind and rain were replaced by sunshine as the group made their way past Corfe Castle, towards the iconic cliffs of ‘Old Harry’ lookout before completing the expedition by early afternoon on the beach, where they laid out their airbeds for a well-deserved rest. Unfortunately, they then heard that the coach due to take everyone back to school at 3.30pm had broken down just half an hour away. When the replacement coach finally came, Mr Futter had to go off to rescue the second driver who had got lost on the way! The announcement of the coach arriving at 6.45 pm was met with a cheer and a mad dash up from the beach from students wearing crocs and flip flops with Dr Sheldon setting the pace! A very tired group of students and staff got back to NHEHS at just before 11pm.
Mr Futter was very impressed with the whole year group, calling them ‘one of the most resilient and best groups we have had on a Silver DofE expedition.’
A big thank you to Mr Futter, Dr Pearce, Dr Sheldon, Miss Gamberini, Mr Gallacher, Ms Vanini and Mrs Critcher for accompanying the group and helping to keep everyone’s spirits up!
