Alex McDonald, Calum Bain, Joshua McKee and David McFarlane with their partners from St Patrick’s Academy

A total of 18 pupils signed up to do the Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award as a joint venture with St Patrick’s Academy.  The meetings took place most weeks on Tuesday afternoon with all pupils showing great commitment.

After Easter the Silver groups had a two day practice expedition in the Mournes,  and this enabled pupils to apply what they had been taught in the classroom to real situations.  It also highlighted the fact that hiking is both a physical and mental challenge.

The Silver qualifying expedition took place in June but due to bad weather had to be postponed to September.  In the end 17 pupils completed the expedition section of the Award.  They are continuing to work on the other sections of physical, skill and volunteering planning to have the Award completed by this Easter.

 RLH