For the past twenty years I have had the pleasure of overseeing and being part of the very successful Duke of Edinburgh programme at NSB. As the award has evolved, many NSB students from Year 9 to 13 have taken part. The benefits of achieving a Duke of Edinburgh Award at any level are endless.  The programme advocates that achieving an award will give students skills, confidence and an edge over others when they apply for college, university or a job. Beyond their academic achievements, universities want to see evidence of so called ‘soft skills’ that students have developed through extra-curricular activities, such as communication, commitment, leadership and teamwork. The Duke of Edinburgh Award is a fantastic way to demonstrate and evidence these skills in practice.

What is incredible as a leader, is seeing the students realise their potential in order to gain the required levels of achievement. The highlight, however, is achieving the prestigious Gold Award; so, it was a wonderful occasion last week when two of our Year 13 students, Chole Walding and Seva Kaur attended the Buckingham Palace Garden Party to receive their Gold Award from the Duke of Edinburgh. Also attending was Mason Fisher who left the school last year and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a message from former student Tom Tinant, who was in attendance, six years since leaving NSB!

The Duke of Edinburgh expedition section is just one part of the award that needs to be completed. The Duke of Edingburgh team have been busy with practice and assessed expeditions in the past couple of weeks. April 24^th – 27^th was the Gold practice in the Brecon Beacons in which 28 Year 12 students battled the cold and windy conditions. Last weekend could not have been more different in terms of the climate,  45 Year 9 students completed their Bronze assessed expedition in the warm sunshine. All students coped well with the challenge of an expedition and were a credit to the school. A special mention to Daniel Tilston who walked all day Saturday and camped overnight, he then left early Sunday morning to play a rugby match for Saints. When he had finished his match, he rejoined his team to complete the expedition!

In order to facilitate informed choices for their Post 18 options, we are holding our first ' Future Apprentice Evening' to complement the recent University and Oxbridge Evenings we held here at NSB for our Year 12 students.  The evening will consist of a presentation explaining what apprenticeships are, a Q&A panel of NSB alumni that are currently completing apprenticeships, a Q&A Panel with employers to share why apprenticeships are important to them, followed by an opportunity for students to talk to a range of companies.  We hope as many Year 12s as possible attend to raise their awareness of apprenticeships and to enable them to make informed decisions about which pathway or pathways are the best choice to meet their career aspirations.