Silver Duke of Edinburgh's award expedition

Congratulations to the 11 students from Years 10 and 11 who successfully completed their Silver Duke of Edinburgh's award expedition in the Chiltern Hills. Despite some very hot walking weather and a very wet night' the students persevered through over 45km of walking in the countryside carrying all of their kit. Over the weekend we observed some fabulous teamwork and were incredibly impressed by the students attitude and motivation even though there were a few wrong turns!

The Story of the Red Kite

During the DofE Silver practice expedition we knew that the students may come across unfamiliar animals, and we normally get told about large, overly friendly dogs, ‘ferocious’ donkeys and cows; but even we got a surprise when a group of students turned up at a checkpoint carrying a bundle containing an injured red kite that they had found at the side of the road.

The kite had a badly damaged wing and injured feet but was taken to a raptor centre by Mr Fuest where specialists were able to amputate part of the damaged wing. We are now able to confirm that, although the bird will not be able to be released back into the wild, it has been placed into a breeding programme to help secure the future of this beautiful and rare species (there are currently only 1,800 pairs in the UK).

We would like to thank our kind, responsible students for their quick thinking that saved a precious bird of prey.