Duke of Edinburgh

03 May Duke of Edinburgh

I was extremely impressed by the group of students whom I accompanied to Trewern OEC over the Easter holidays with the aim of completing their gold practice expedition. They worked all week from 8^th – 12^th April with Juliet Parker-Smith, the former Head of Centre at Trewern, and acquired a huge range of skills and experience to help them on their way with their four day/three night canoeing expedition in July, when they will canoe for four days on the River Wye starting at Hay-on-Wye and finishing four days later at Symonds Yat.

I asked the group to act like a group of sponges – soaking up skills and vital information all week and they did just that! They worked hard from their first day’s paddling on the River Usk at Brecon.  On the second day they progressed to moving water skills on the River Wye, before undertaking a two day journey on the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. I was very proud of the way that they rose to all of the challenges that they met. They were a fantastic group and a pleasure to have along on expedition. Huge thanks also to Terry Dignam for his help with supervising the group all week, and to Juliet for her expert instruction. I know the group are really looking forward to their expedition in July.  The students involved all receive an LOC for committing to their learning. They are: Daniel Gill, Yewande Oginni and Nathan Rehmat 12A, Lauren Simson, Emma Smith and Alperen Oktay 12C, and Emily Fawsitt 12E.  Big commiserations to Jovan Nenadovic who was unable to join us due to a nasty basket balling injury, we hope he will be back on the river in July.