Northwood College for Girls Strike Gold at DofE’s Gold Award Event, Buckingham Palace

NWC alumnae Dominique Olaleye, Sally Tremlett, Naiya Vekaria, Tanya Rangi, Imaan Khokhar and Kritika Sawant were proud guests of HRH The Earl of Wessex at the Buckingham Palace Garden last Friday for one of the first Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award holder celebration events to have taken place since the Covid pandemic. HRH The Earl of Wessex, Chair of Trustees of the Award, hosted this presitigous occasion to recognise and celebrate 3,000 young adults who have each completed demanding, and sometimes gruelling, Gold DofE programmes.

Buckingham Palace Garden was transformed into a festival-style setting for the award recipients and their loved ones to enjoy inspirational talks from recognised DofE Award holders, international adventurers and explorers. Past NWC pupils were able to gain career advice from successful business leaders and entrepreneurs, and soaked up the festive spirit by participating in garden games and activities.

Speaking of their DofE experience, Dominique said: “Completing the Duke of Edinburgh award from Bronze to Gold was a fantastic achievement for me, as well as the personal rewards I gained, and it was fantastic to be invited to the beautiful gardens of Buckingham Palace to dress up and celebrate amongst my friends and other award holders. It was a privilege to receive praise from HRH The Earl of Wessex amongst many other famous faces and DofE alumnae!

“Despite completing the award in 2019, the memories and lessons that I have taken away from this experience are still prominent in my mind, and we still laugh and joke about the times shared on the expeditions to the Peak District (Silver Award) and Snowdonia (Gold Award). The Gold Award encouraged me to progress skills and interests of mine, for instance, I wrote for our school’s student led gazette on issues and topics that interested me, like “Drug Doping in Sport”, which aided my decision to study English at University. I would highly recommend this award to anyone considering it, it is very rewarding, allows you to pursue things you may otherwise not do and puts you out into the great outdoors. The dedication, support and opportunities offered by the DofE award, my school and Mrs Cronnelly, and my family and friends are greatly appreciated!”

Head of Northwood College, Rebecca Brown, was thrilled to be able to enjoy this special event with her NWC alumnae and commented: “We challenge ourselves and help build resilience’, is one of the leading lines from our school’s Mission Statement, and the DofE Awards are a true testament to this claim.

“My team and I work tirelessly to motivate, stretch, challenge and support each pupil at Northwood. We take them out of their comfort zone via an invigorating portfolio of opportunities, each designed to help build resilience and confidence, and to enable the pupils to face future challenges with confidence and self-assurance, fully prepared for their further education and ultimately, success within the 21st Century workplace.

“As adults, we know that our fast-changing world can be a challenging place and realising your dreams requires strong self-efficacy. By delivering exciting, inspirational lessons we encourage our girls to rise to academic challenges in the classroom, but at Northwood we do so much more to help build character – we embrace a sense of adventure. Getting outdoors and being challenged, both mentally and physically, helps develop independence and effective collaboration, whilst learning new skills and recognising their inner strength. We want to ensure that our girls will never be intimidated in life, will never be limited by glass ceilings and will ultimately unfurl their wings and soar.”

A Gold DofE programme is a demanding, non-competitive personal challenge, open to all young people, which takes a minimum of 12 months to complete. Programme activities are split into five sections – Physical, Skills, Volunteering, a five-day Residential and a four-day expedition. The pandemic hit young people hard, affecting their education, social lives, jobs and mental health. At a time when many lost structure and routine, the DofE provided a much-needed motivation, purpose and focus. Supported by their Leaders, more than 330,000 young people worked towards their DofE Awards during the first year of the pandemic and volunteered more than 1.8 million hours in their communities, often helping the COVID relief effort.

Mrs Brown commented: “No girl goes under the radar at NWC when it comes to adventure. In Year 7 and 8 we run Bronze and Silver National Navigation Awards, which teach navigation skills using map interpretation and compass work, first aid, walk preparation and route planning; I am delighted that over 100 pupils achieved awards this year. We strongly encourage our girls, from Year 9 upwards, to take part in DofE and can congratulate 66 bronze participants, 44 silver participants and 18 gold participants for getting involved this year alone.

“The next academic year will see pupils paddling the Great Glen Way in Scotland and wild camping alongside the lochs – devoid of all facilities! Girls carry their own sleeping bags, mats, food, clothes, toiletries and first aid from the start of the expedition until the end. Hours of independent preparation precedes each expedition, but they can find themselves dealing with unplanned events, ranging from Storm Aurore (last October) to unpredicted heatwaves, health issues and getting lost!  Taking everything in their stride, they learn from effective teamwork and time management, creative thinking and emotional resilience.

“From next year, we will offer our Gold DofE award holders the opportunity to enter the Lowland Leader Award, which will allow them to lead their own groups and become DofE instructors. We are also excited about launching our first ever DofE style Expedition to parents of our pupils – thus encouraging our whole school community to challenge themselves and adopt the true NWC spirit for embracing adventure!

“From Nursery age upwards we inspire our girls to embark on adventures by participating in many of our 70 extra-curricular clubs. Unashamedly ambitious for each pupil, we support the girls to really excel in their chosen pathways. A Year 1 pupil singing in the Songbirds choir might go on to perform in a Parisian, Italian or Belgium Cathedral on one of our various international music trips; a Mandarin student studying the history of China could visit the Ancient Dynasty Forbidden City as part of our venture to Beijing; and many of our DofE award holders will look ahead to participate in World Challenge 2023, which previously saw our girls trekking in Cambodia and Vietnam!”

Ruth Marvel, DofE CEO, concludes: “Achieving a Gold DofE Award is a remarkable achievement at any time – but over the last two years young people have overcome extraordinary challenges to achieve theirs. I’m delighted we’re finally able to give them the celebration they deserve and recognise the amazing passion, resilience, and creativity they’ve shown.  We owe it to all young people to give them access to opportunities like the DofE, which can help them build their confidence, resilience and skills so they’re ready for anything.”