Duke of Edinburgh’s Award memories

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 wintertree 11 Apr 2021

I never did the DofE awards, but clearing out Wintertree, Sr’s files I found his Boys Brigade stuff from the early 1960s, including his Gold log book.  I can’t imagine the change from playing in the bomb craters of east London to doing the award in the Lake District.  

I’ve shared a few photos below, and I thought others might like to share their recollections.

I’ve also uploaded a mysterious sketch from another otherwise apparently unrelated book.  It’s either solving some cypher or it’s triangulation calculations.  If anyone can interpret it I’d be much obliged.


 GrahamD 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I never did it either, but I was lucky in that I was always into the hills and was encouraged both at my school and through cubs and scouts.

Both my brothers went to a different school which did the DoE and I think they really benefited.  Aside from the community service aspect, it gave them a real sense of adventure and self reliance in the hills.

 Clarence 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I started the DofE at school but after a few weeks there was only me and another boy who never spoke so it just wound up. By that point I had got a taste for something similar so I joined the Venture Scouts and did my Queen's Scout Award instead. Probably would never have joined the scouts otherwise.

Roadrunner6 11 Apr 2021
In reply to GrahamD:

I did it.

It was a piss up. I wasn't a smoker but the rest were so it was a smoking and drinking few days out.

Good fun.

Tbh I'm surprised so many I know voted tory go on about it yet they've backed a party who have systematically cut kids access to outdoor centers.

Post edited at 12:25
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 neilh 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Fantastic photos and memories for you .  Thanks for posting. 
 

I too have great memories of the scheme. It’s excellent. 

 nufkin 11 Apr 2021
In reply to neilh:

>  I too have great memories of the scheme. It’s excellent. 

Agreed in principle, but I did Bronze and Silver with as little effort to do things I wasn't already involved in as possible.
I can thank it for a subsequent aversion to cooking with meths, at least

 Richard J 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did all three, enjoyed them and appreciated the opportunity.

My strongest memory is of three days of continuous, torrential rain in our Silver walk in the Yorkshire Dales.  The final night we camped near Ribblehead, and then (having been checked off by our monitor) we piled into the Station Inn.  I can still picture the late Mark Miller, sat in front of his pint, stripped to his underpants, with all his clothes hung from the radiators (a gesture that would not surprise in the least anyone who knew him in his later alpine binman days). 

I'm sorry, this confession probably means I'm now going to be stripped of all my DoE awards.

In reply to wintertree:

Bloody yoof just going into the hills to take selfies to post on social media...

They do look cheerful...

The sketch doesn't look like any triangulation calculation I can think of; there are no bearings, and most points aren't labelled. I did wonder if it was a grid of lines between peaks.

ps. I never did it. Or scouts. But I spent most of my childhood ruining around in local woods, and much of my family holidays walking. For the last ten years I've helped supervise DofE expeditions, and I'm an assessor now, too. The school I've helped with has changed academy recently, and there's been a change of regime in the DofE there, and I'm not sure what my role might be now...

Post edited at 16:16
 earlsdonwhu 11 Apr 2021

As a teacher/ assessor for many years, I recall: endless hours sitting in a minibus waiting for groups, sleepless nights at campsites, failing to convince pupils that they could survive an expedition with half the amount in their rucksacks, colleagues who were oblivious to the fact that I, and my small team, had voluntarily given up our weekends and holidays, parents who couldn't be arsed to be prompt when collecting their kids when back at school, giving advice on blister care, hours spent repairing/maintaining kit, the smell of meths etc.

Was it worth it all? YES!

I do worry that with pressure on schools/ league tables/ pandemic catch up etc that the type of schools where the fruits of the scheme are most beneficial will be less able to offer it. I was never impressed by middle class parents telling their kids to participate because it would look good on a UCAS application to a Russell Group university. 

 Maggot 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Why didn't the lads in pic 2 get the cable car?
They don't look too happy!

Post edited at 17:28
 MisterPiggy 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did the Bronze at school: loved it! First aid lessons with local GP, including snogging Annie the resuscitation victim; more practice hikes than necessary - just for the fun; great final assessment hike with a project to map an Iron Age fort in the Peckforton hills, Cheshire. Weeks of soaking feet in meths to harden them up... Cramming inappropriate kit into old rucsac... Damp in a borrowed tent and Millet's sleeping bag... A great time all round and lots of good things to remember.

 Andy Hardy 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I reckon your dad must have buried some treasure in the Burnmoor Tarn vicinity, and that there is his map...it's got an X right in the middle to, marking the spot.

 Darron 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I met Phil the Greek at a Dof E event in Chester in the ‘70s. He flew a Wessex in. We had a canoeing stand (we had built our own in Venture Scouts). Didn’t continue with canoeing much or D of E. We considered the Queens Scout Award as a higher standard.

Edit to say the D of E has been a fantastic initiative though and continues to be so. 

Post edited at 18:58
 Tom Last 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I started DoE award and completed the charitable bit by helping my next door but one neighbour Ivy with her garden one summer. Ivy must have been well in to her 80s back then in about 1994 and had lived in that same house her whole life. She told me about the B25 that she watched coming down in flames over the town, the crew never bailing out and a nearby road being named posthumastly Lieutenant Ellis Way in honour of the crew. Tales of the war, of the Italian prisoners of war whose third  generation descendents I then went to school with. She gave me crumbling and ancient gifts of books with names like "Boys' Tips For Helping Mother About the House" and warned me time and again not to get old. I remember her happy smiles as I did what was very likely a largely substandard job of maintaining her lawn as she recounted these memories and brought me pink wafer biscuits and cups of good tea in mugs untouched since before I was born.

I never did finish my DoE Award and never did any of the outdoorsy bits, but for the memories I have of Ivy and the company and happiness I suppose my visits brought her, it was worth it all the same.

Yes, a good scheme indeed. 

 Welsh Kate 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I started my Bronze but had to give it up in order to do Greek 'O' level (this incidentally was at a state comprehensive), and I never completed any of the awards.

However, I've met many DoE expedition groups in the hills in my MR role and one of my first casualties was a DoE lass with a knee injury whom we had to stretcher off. We used - regularly - to be out in June and July in particular picking up bedraggled and mildly hypothermic groups in bad weather, groups who'd made a bloody good effort but injury or vile weather conditions had got the better of them, and on the flip side the occasional group suffering from LMF. Mobile phone coverage and SPOT trackers mean those searches are pretty much a thing of the past.

I'm looking forward to seeing the groups in the Beacons again this summer - whether they love the experience or hate it!

 BusyLizzie 11 Apr 2021
In reply to Tom Last:

What a lovely story!

 danieleaston 11 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did climbing for DoE, at Marple Rope Race, must have been around 2000. The chap signing my form at reception added a different initial after his name every time (O.B.E, PhD, MSc, etc). I wonder if he is on here? As I remember I did the sport and the expedition but gave up after failing a first aid course assessment and refusing to write a diary from the expedition, which my school insisted on, as they liked to suck the fun out of things.

Post edited at 22:25
 Darron 11 Apr 2021
In reply to danieleaston:

Didn’t Sam Whittaker work at Rope Race about then?

 Ridge 11 Apr 2021
In reply to danieleaston:

> ...refusing to write a diary from the expedition, which my school insisted on, as they liked to suck the fun out of things.

That takes me back to my school days. If someone points out something interesting on a school trip don't look at it, or you'll have to write about it later.

 Toerag 12 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

One of the guys in our group on my Bronze expedition was heavily into first aid. The field next door to our campsite was used for paintball and my mate found a red paintball and proceeded to pop it all over his hands and panic the first aid guru. Good times!

 Robert Durran 12 Apr 2021
In reply to danieleaston:

> ........refusing to write a diary from the expedition, which my school insisted on, as they liked to suck the fun out of things.

Yes, the writing up is rubbish. So often you see kids who aren't great in a classroom really come into their own on expeditions.... and then they get to do a tedious writing job just like any other piece of schoolwork. 

 Robert Durran 12 Apr 2021
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> I was never impressed by middle class parents telling their kids to participate because it would look good on a UCAS application.

Nothing worse than that. They should be banned from doing it if that is why they want to do it. And then the parents who complain "but they need it for their UCAS...." when their little darling is told they're not up to it after moaning their way through their training expedition should be shot.

 wercat 12 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Oh how we larfed at the DoE "bolshies and conchies" at school for evading the Combined Cadet Force.

How silly we were!

At least they managed to avoid the lethal and ancient primus stoves we got to use. Plus they probably got to see more than bracken and woodland training areas.

what about a DoE for old gits wot didn't do it at skool?

Post edited at 10:10
In reply to Robert Durran:

> Yes, the writing up is rubbish

Theres no requirement to 'write it ip'. You have to give a presentation (only silver & gold now). That can be whatever form you choose. Could be a song and dance routine.

 Robert Durran 12 Apr 2021
In reply to captain paranoia:

> > Yes, the writing up is rubbish

> Theres no requirement to 'write it ip'. You have to give a presentation (only silver & gold now). 

Yes, but still a chore which I think detracts for many.

In reply to Tom Last:

I think that's one of the nicest recollections of the DofE I've read. Thanks.

 earlsdonwhu 12 Apr 2021
In reply to Robert Durran:

For my school/ centre, the nightmare was when we failed kids for not being up to standard on the expedition. For many, it was the first time they had failed in any sort of formal assessment. ( Constantly banging on with buzzwords like  "fostering resilience" made little difference to their ability to cope with this setback!)

 Jim Hamilton 12 Apr 2021
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> I was never impressed by middle class parents telling their kids to participate because it would look good on a UCAS application to a Russell Group university. 

My kids recollection was that it was the school that told them to participate for this reason!

 Toccata 12 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Wasn't aware of it being a thing in Scotland in the late 80s (knowing no one from that age group who is Scottish and has done it). At my cousin's school (Midlands) however it was reserved for those likely to go to university and was considered essential alongside General Studies A Level.

 walts4 12 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Bronze award walk was the Derwent watershed at the height of the drought summer of 76.

Absolutely dehydrated spending the night at Kinder downfall, walked into Hope next day & drank out of the river there, couldn’t even make a further 200 meters to the shop. Never forget those 2 days aged 16.

 alan moore 12 Apr 2021
In reply to Toccata:

> Wasn't aware of it being a thing in Scotland in the late 80s

Wasn't aware of it being a thing in Gloucestershire in the late 80's

it was reserved for those likely to go to university alongside General Studies A Level.

 Ridge 12 Apr 2021
In reply to alan moore:

> Wasn't aware of it being a thing in Gloucestershire in the late 80's

> it was reserved for those likely to go to university alongside General Studies A Level.

I don't think our school, (sink comprehensive in Yorkshire) was involved with it at all. My outdoors experience was gained through the Scouts, and we had no link with the DoE Award either.

 Ridge 12 Apr 2021
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> For my school/ centre, the nightmare was when we failed kids for not being up to standard on the expedition. For many, it was the first time they had failed in any sort of formal assessment. ( Constantly banging on with buzzwords like  "fostering resilience" made little difference to their ability to cope with this setback!)

How do you fail going for a walk and a bit of camping?

Genuine question BTW.

In reply to Ridge:

> How do you fail going for a walk and a bit of camping?

Failing to meet any of the 20 Conditions.

Getting lifts/the bus/taxi. Slap up meals in Mrs Miggins'. Not doing enough days. Breaking the countryside code. Being dangerously incompetent. Getting lost and not bothering to get unlost. Trying to shag each other... So many different ways to 'deferral'...

 Robert Durran 12 Apr 2021
In reply to Ridge:

> How do you fail going for a walk and a bit of camping?

Failing to finish the walk (most obviously).

In reply to wintertree:

Many happy memories of my DoE Gold expedition hikes. Did our practice expedition in the Brecon Beacons and it did nothing but rain whilst we were there. Arrived in the evening after travelling up from Plymouth at the end of the school day to discover our first lesson, always check your kit properly before you set off. Using the school's equipment, including tents and the last person to use it had packed it all down seperately and wrapped the fly sheet inside the inner which was promptly soaked after having to unravel it to get the fly sheet out. Expedition started the next day and half the footpaths were now rivers! Teachers called it off when we eventually arrived at our campsite at the end of the first day due to the flood warnings that had now been put out. Add to that one of the lads in my groups wasn't able to cope with the physical side of it so myself and another boy in the group had to take it in turns hiking with our pack on our back and his strapped across our front. Helped keep the rain off but made it impossible to see where you were stepping!

Our assessed expedition was the polar opposite in terms of weather. Hiked across the Lake District in blue skies and blazing hot sunshine. Started off from Windermere Youth Hostel and headed north to hike to the top of Helvellyn then circled back on a different route finishing in Kendal. Shared the youth hostel there with a youth cricket team on tour from Australia. Fortunately the hostel didn't have a cricket pitch so the only sporting competition we were able to take them on at was English pool, which we won rather resoundingly  

 Stairclimber 12 Apr 2021
In reply to Tom Last:

I am personally more impressed with your 'non completion' of the award than any of the 'great memories of the expeditions' that so many award holders relate. Camping and walking with your mates isn't a challenge, it's a privilege. What you did was a genuine contribution to humanity and seems a wonderful learning experience for you. Congratulations!

 Derry 12 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did my DofE growing up in New Zealand, which certainly was one of the main components of my love for the outdoors. When I completed my Gold award, I was fortunate enough for the Duke himself to be travelling through NZ, and got to briefly speak to him which, at the time I knew was special, but only later I could fully comprehend how fortunate I was. He was all smiles throughout the day.

Fond memories.

In reply to Robert Durran:

> Yes, but still a chore which I think detracts for many.

It's part of the award. Like the volunteering. Like the physical. Like the skills. By comparison with the investment of time for those, a few hours preparing a team presentation hardly seems a great delta in effort required. The presentation is supposed to be related to the aim of the expedition. It's up to the team to pick an aim they will enjoy presenting.

1
 DH3631 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did silver and gold through school in the late 80s/early 90s. Being fortunate to have been taken hillwalking by family from a young age, and also being in a scout troop which did quite a bit of outdoor stuff, the expeds, mainly in S Highlands and a couple in the Lakes, weren't a big ordeal, though they were the highlight for me. In fact I think I managed to get on a couple of extra practice expeds, above the scheme requirements, just for fun. Tbh, at the time the main appeal for me was the additional opportunities to get into the hills, with transport etc, and parental approval of the supposedly character building benefits. We had to produce written reports afterwards, which was a wee bit of a chore but more interesting than homework, but can't remember having to do any group presentations.

With hindsight, possibly the more valuable elements were those which were out of my comfort zone, the Service (working in a charity shop with mainly a load of old but nice grannies), and the Gold residential project. I signed up to a conservation project, a week tree planting on an island and living in a bothy, partly because it was cheap (£20 for food/accommodation, plus the cost of ferry tickets IIRC). As a somewhat awkward 17 year old schoolboy, having to integrate with the rest of the volunteers, all adults with a wide range of ages and backgrounds, was a real learning experience, with some craic in the evenings. In particular, the realisation that I could earn respect and friendship from people that didn't know who I was or where I came from, by turning up, mucking in and being positive.

No doubt there are many for whom the expeds are equally challenging, such as one guy I remember crying when it started snowing... So perhaps the real value is in getting youngsters to do things that for them aren't the easy options they have a natural aptitude for.

 Hutson 13 Apr 2021
In reply to DH3631:

It's the expedition part that sticks in my mind as we already did lots of charitable/volunteering stuff often through the Brownies. My parents aren't in the least bit outdoorsy and I lived on a council estate in inner London so I was never encouraged to go hiking or camping, but one day a nice woman came into our school and gave us a talk about DofE including the trip. It sounded good, so I signed up. It was a scheme run by the local police and youth workers and was obviously intended to keep troublesome and underprivileged yoof off the streets over the school holidays. We went somewhere in Devon with plenty of hills.

All the kit was borrowed from the local scouts and was ancient and quite dirty including the sleeping bags and their dubious stains, which as a teenage girl I was particularly unimpressed with. I was one of those teenagers who couldn't put on weight so I was waif-thin and carrying a reasonable percentage of my body weight. I think I packed mad things like a full-size bottle of shampoo (I had no idea). We had a thin closed cell foam mat to sleep on and managed to pitch our tents on a slope so I kept rolling on top of my friend. Sleeping bag was too cold and I barely slept. Absolutely terrified of noises round the campsite and got told off for screaming. I lay there swearing to myself I would never camp again. In the morning my friend and I had a shouting match about who would carry what (she made me carry the bloody elderly triangia which I was unimpressed with). One of the older kids told me our kit was absolute crap and camping didn't have to be this way (his family did a lot of camping) but I didn't really believe him and just thought people who camped were masochists. 

At one point in the night girls were discovered in a boys tent and the youth workers went mad and made them pack up and pretended to drive them all home except they only drove them a mile down the road then came back. They were absolutely terrified of the girls getting pregnant and kept repeating that it was more than their jobs were worth.

Getting up the hills with that pack and zero fitness was like nothing I'd ever experienced. The leaders made a film about the trip for our parents at the end of it and they illustrated a point about people pushing themselves to their limits with a close up shot of me looking sweaty and exhausted at the top of the hill which everyone laughed at. I remember feeling so rough in that photo I didn't give a crap about the view. I also remember the leaders insisting we watched a sunset and being grudgingly impressed with that.

It was really hot during the day and we ran out of water; as a city kid I remember being astonished about how friendly the barman of one of the pubs was about filling our bottles with iced water even though we didn't buy anything. We also did some low level traversing, climbing and abseiling as part of the scheme which I really enjoyed but had no idea it would be possible to continue back in London and my parents would have struggled to afford it anyway (ironically I grew up very close to Westway but I didn't even know it was there).

I didn't dare camp again until one of my friends persuaded me to come cycle camping with him and some others in my late twenties whereupon I discovered it could be quite pleasant with a bit of knowledge, experience and decent kit. I absolutely love camping now to the point where my husband thinks I've got a bit of a problem with buying kit which to be fair I probably have.

 MonkeyPuzzle 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

A few of the lads stole a cask of ale from the back of a pub, rolled it to the campsite with no way of opening it, got caught anyway and all got sent home and suspended. They should have brought scrumpy like our team did.

Good old DofE!

 lucozade 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

What a great load of brilliant stories and memories! Haven't done D of E but just being out in the fells, mountains, Dartmoor we've come across and occasionally given advice and been a support to many a group (and been schooled too!) So good. 

 robhorton 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I only got as far as bronze, which I did through school in the mid 90s. I'd done quite a lot of walking and camping through the scouts so the expedition wasn't particularly new but it was a bit different doing it with other kids from school who mostly hadn't done that sort of thing before. And there was a girl I fancied in our group which made it a bit more interesting.

The DofE is, however, what got me into climbing "properly". We had been with the scouts a few times but that was just being put on a top rope and lowered down again. A couple of our teachers who were climbers took us to a wall a few times where we were trusted to belay each other and we had a couple of outdoor trips where we had a crash course in setting up anchors.

The skill and volunteering bits I sort of fudged with stuff I was doing anyway. I don't feel too bad about it

I've not had any involvement in the scheme since then but often see what are presumably DofE expedition groups out with massive backpacks trudging along, often in foul weather. I can't help wondering if they are actually enjoying themselves or if it puts them off for life.

In reply to robhorton:

>  I can't help wondering if they are actually enjoying themselves or if it puts them off for life.

That's something I worry about. They are sometimes out in weather where I tell them I'd be in the pub... I try hard to keep their pack sizes down, with tips on what to take. But cheap, sturdy kit is often bulky and heavy.

 neilh 13 Apr 2021
In reply to captain paranoia:

At 17 I was lucky enough to go on an Outward Bound course at Ullswater, the culmination being a 4 day hike across the Lakes embracing all sorts of big mountains equivalent to a gold Dof E. It rained with low cloud all the time- 4 days solid- and was a complete trudge fest.My other 3 compatriots- one soldier, a Barclays trainee bank manager and a betting shop trainee manager- detested it. I loved it, we got totally lost, but made it back.I was an 8.5 stone weakling , and had been cr#p at sports, and I proved to myself I could knuckle down and get on with it..

Never underestimate how much these things can do for people despite the bad gear.

 jonesdwill 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

Being a youth, I did my Gold DofE with Scouts back in 2018, during 'the Beast from the East'. We foolishly took 'lightweight' summer tents so there was some type 2 fun involved but a great experience nonetheless, really we were just a bunch of mates on a bit of a jaunt through the Dales. 

A bonus was the physical section got me back into climbing, which has since snowballed into an obsession like most people on here..

The Queen's Scout Award and Explorer Belt are great as well! Although they require quite a bit more time, effort and privilege.

 SFM 13 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I didn’t do DoE as I was an avid Scout so did the equivalent badges. 
I found the expedition stuff came most naturally and on reflection I dragged and cajoled the others round the fairly ambitious(for a 16 year old) routes we did. I remember one of the training hikes where it unexpectedly heavily snowed in May so all 4 of us piled into a 2 man tent to keep warm. The scout leader appeared at midnight to check on us convinced he would have to deal with hypothermic youth but was pleasantly surprised at our initiative. I did make the mistake of eating all my emergency rations (500g of raisins and a block of marzipan) on the way home. Funnily enough I’ve never done that again....

My service bit was done in a what was then called a spastic school with severely handicapped children. I found it profoundly difficult but learned a lot about human resilience and intelligence(not mine). The means of non-verbal communication have stuck with me every since. 

 Fozzy 15 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did my Bronze & Silver through Scouts, and as such, didn’t find them very different to what we got up to anyway in Scouts back in the 90’s. 

I’m now the Expedition Supervisor/Assessor for DofE at work, and find that most of my time is spent sat in an open car boot at checkpoints, watching the Jetboil yet again.

 
I do love how it gives the students an opportunity to interact in an environment where, for the vast majority, they would never normally find themselves. How they’ll quite happily sit around, chat, share food, play cards or amuse themselves without a mobile phone in sight (I have a habit of choosing campsites for their lack of phone signal).
The blushes from the quiet lads who’ve been involved with Scouts or hiking with families suddenly becoming heroes and fawned over by the ‘popular’ girls, who’d probably never spoken to them before, due to their abilities with a camping stove often brings much amusement for us staff watching from a distance too. 

I also love seeing them come in to the final checkpoint with the look of knackered joy on the faces, knowing that they’ve completed something they’d never thought possible beforehand. 
 

What I don’t enjoy:

- the whinging at times over tiny things

- parents who insist that their kid uses their old kit, despite it being utterly ancient, weighing a ton & completely useless. 
- Mountain Warehouse boots; what is the point?! 
- Parents who don’t say thanks when picking up their kids, despite you giving up a weekend (for no extra pay)& a lot of sleep. Parents who are late have their own special place in hell. 
- Whoever invented the Bluetooth speaker and made some kids think it’s ok to blast music out of one when out walking  

- The complaints that come in when the validator notices that little Johnny/Jemima has quite obviously swindled their other requirements & referred them back. No, we can’t just pass them anyway so it looks good on their uni applications. 
- How SLT don’t tend to realise how much work goes into running it, nor do they give us much appreciation for doing so. 

 GrahamD 15 Apr 2021
In reply to Fozzy:

Have a thumbs up from me, anyway.

 gravy 15 Apr 2021
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

"I was never impressed by middle class parents telling their kids to participate because it would look good on a UCAS application to a Russell Group University.".

Amen - no one bothers to reads the personal statements and shit like this doesn't even register.  If you've got something exceptional in achievement or circumstances it is worth noting but 97% of the guff written simply serves to rubber stamp "middle class cultural capital in place" and isn't even read.

I'd do away with this statement altogether.  The pain it causes applicants vs the indifference it is greeted with means it counts as one of the poorest cost/benefit exercises in life.

 neilh 15 Apr 2021
In reply to gravy:

The one obvious hidden benefit maybe is that it gets young people. to actually focus on what they want to do and have achieved.

And in the modern employment world these sort of things are standard guff I am afraid to say. So a young person  should start getting  use to this sort of thing....especially a potential graduate.

Completely useless for STEM based subjects

2
 Fozzy 15 Apr 2021
In reply to earlsdonwhu:

> For my school/ centre, the nightmare was when we failed kids for not being up to standard on the expedition. For many, it was the first time they had failed in any sort of formal assessment. ( Constantly banging on with buzzwords like  "fostering resilience" made little difference to their ability to cope with this setback!)

I’ve only ever had to fail one kid on expedition (apart from those who’ve given up halfway through & had to be driven off). She decided to completely ignore all of the training, reminders 5 mins before cooking began & safety procedures in place at camp, and refilled an already-lit Trangia. If she’d just dropped the now-burning bottle & doused the flames, she’d have got away with a high-volume b*llocking, but she decided to screech and fling it away whilst still alight, into the open porch of a staff tent...

 neilh 15 Apr 2021
In reply to Fozzy:

Reminds me of a trip in my  teens. 6 of us away in the lakes - 3 lads 3 girls on a " training" walking weekend via what is explorer scouts. Primus stove caught fire and burnt down the lads tent. 6 of us in one Force Ten Mk 111 for the night..........Fortunately it was a gorgeous weekend in the summer.

 Rob Exile Ward 15 Apr 2021
In reply to neilh:

I've always been impressed with my youngest son - he did a training expedition and then the real thing, on both occasions it was non-stop driving rain.  Because there were under strict instructions not to cook inside their tents, they didn't - and being that they were in the Brecon Beacons there was absolutely no shelter for the whole time. It must have been miserable, I don't think I would have tolerated it.

Post edited at 15:37
 Baz P 15 Apr 2021
In reply to wintertree:

I did all three back in 1961. I was already into climbing and walking so it didn’t really make an impression on me. I remember getting lost in the wilds of north Wales and sleeping the night in a hay barn. When arriving the next day the instructors weren’t in the least worried. Imagine that today. It would be all over the BBC news.

What did leave lasting memories was the community service. I did this with the Civil Defence which, for you young uns was set up to look after everything in case of a nuclear war. It involved me in crawling through bombed buildings and smoke filled buildings looking for and dealing with casualties of the H bomb. Also learning of blast radii and the ensuing damage possibilities. Government advice at that time was to whitewash your windows and hide under a stout table. You were grown up at 14 years old. I had already had two trips to Skye.


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