News & Headteacher Blogs

THe Duke of Edinburgh Presentation Evening was a celebration of our students who have achieved some truly amazing goals.

Since May 2017 sixty six students from The Downs School completed the award and the evening saw thirty seven students collect their certificate. These sixty six students have collectively dedicated 952 hours to the community; they gave up their time to help others whether it be at Rainbows, Scouts, libraries, charity shops or animal rescue centres. They clocked over 1200 hours developing an existing skill or learning something new and have played a whopping 1632 hours of sports as part of their physical section.

We heard from 3 Year 10 students who reflected on their own DofE journey. All three beamed as they spoke about the new skills they developed and friends they have made through the award. They spoke about The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award being a personal journey, where students create their own programme which sets challenges, expands horizons and encourages participants to think for themselves. It has built their self-esteem and showed them just what can be achieved when youngsters set themselves goals and work as a team.

We heard from Mrs N Read, South East Region DofE, who spoke about the merits of the award at university and employment; she spoke of our exceptionally high completion rate of almost 90% (nationally it is 50%).

It only leaves me to say I am immensely proud of every single one of our students who worked towards and completed the award, their commitment, dedication and can do attitude is truly something to applauded.

Well done everyone.