Like so many schools the majority of the planned DofE expeditions for the 2020 season have had to be cancelled or postponed. As an organisation, DofE have been very proactive in introducing a number of temporary changes to expedition requirements which have enabled us to run some ‘expeditions with a difference’ this summer, in line with Government guidelines. These changes have given us more flexibility to enable as many of our girls as possible to progress to the next level without losing the chance to achieve their previous award.

Our first ‘expedition with a difference’ allowed the Year 11 girls to complete their Silver Practice Expedition. This was split into two parts, involving a training day based in the hills around Whaley Bridge, followed by a two-day expedition with some navigational challenges between Dunham Massey and school. On arrival at school after a 13-mile walk, the girls were able to put up tents on the school field, cook an evening meal, and still make full use of the indoor facilities. The evening was spent planning out the route for the Qualifier Expedition in September and discussing expedition nutrition and meal planning and sensible backpack packing and loading. Each girl then retired for the night to sleep in their own individual tents. In the morning, tents were hung up in school to dry and the girls then walked a slightly shorter route back to Dunham to be collected.

As always, I am very grateful to Tim Deighton and Alyn Griffiths and their team of mountain leaders, for their sensible leadership of each group. I would also like to thank Ms Kusznir and Mr Whelan for their support with this expedition and in particular the school site and cleaning staff. Finally thank you to the parents of the girls for supporting us so that they were not denied the opportunity for this expedition to take place.

We look forward to the Gold Qualifier Expedition to the Lake District at the end of August and the Silver Qualifier Expedition in September.