Celebrating five years of DofE at South Shore

South Shore Academy is embarking on its fifth year of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. It is a fully embedded sustainable award which is recognised and celebrated throughout the school and there have been so many highlights in the past year.

To have Royalty visit South Shore was a huge honour. Prince Edward complimented the school on such a strong Duke of Edinburgh project. He loved the way that South Shore let nothing stand in the way of students being able to access the award. His visit aimed to bring to the forefront the importance of the ‘Volunteering’ section of the award, which South Shore focussed on this year.

Whilst a large majority of students volunteer within the school community in extra-curricular clubs, during lunchtime and after school, South Shore aimed to increase the number of volunteer placements within the wider community. With many primary schools in the area, students have found that by volunteering in school clubs this creates positive links with primaries and gives their pupils positive role models to look up to. There are over 30 students running and supporting primary staff with school clubs: from athletics and sewing to media and digital arts. Students love their newfound responsibilities, and the primary school staff really welcome the support.

For the young people that take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the benefits of achieving are endless. It’s about having fun, how pushing yourself to do new things will help you to grow in confidence, improving resilience and developing useful life skills.