Students receive Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards

After a three year wait, 20 former Winstanley students collected their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at Buckingham Palace last week.

The students presented with their awards were: Luke, Natalie, Lauren, Julia Ann, Megan, Jessica, Ellie, Joseph, Jennifer, Tia, Dane, Saara, Natasha, Holly, Emma, Lydia, Madeleine, Nicola, Matthew and Niamh.

Activities completed by the students to achieve their award included: learning to drive, sports coaching, martial arts, young leader in the scouts, painting, hospital support, cycling and one student even completed the residential section with a trip to Poland with Wigan Youth Orchestra!

The Duke Edinburgh Award was founded in 1956 by the late Prince Philip with the aim of empowering young people to help in their local community. Participants become fitter, develop new skills, and make new friends and amazing memories. Since its formation, the award has expanded to 144 countries and millions of awards have been presented.

One former student collecting her award was Natasha Bentham (pictured), who attended Bedford High before Winstanley, and is currently in her third year of a Biology Degree at Durham University. Natasha said: ‘DofE helped me to get my role at Reckitt, for the work placement year of my degree, and even got me praise from one of the big bosses in my team! There was an interview question where I was asked about a time where you have had a disagreement and how you overcame it, and I used my DofE expedition as an example, which went down well.”

Natasha added: ‘If I were to give any advice to students considering the award, it would be to push yourself and go for it! Not only is the experience great for helping you to develop interpersonal skills, but it also looks great on your CV and is so useful when you’re looking for jobs in the future!”

Winstanley has a long history of helping students achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Award, with over 100 students collecting theirs in the past ten years. The Gold Award consists of five sections, volunteering, physical, skill, expedition and a residential and you don’t need to have completed Bronze or Silver Awards in order to start!

If you want to find out more about the Duke of Edinburgh Award here at Winstanley visit: https://www.winstanley.ac.uk/110/duke-of-edinburgh