Our First Gold Level Expedition and increasing our numbers of Bronze Award Jungle Trekkers and Silver Year 10 Kayakers.
HIS has been running the International (Duke of Edinburgh) Award for nearly seven years now and we cover all levels of the Award from Bronze to Gold.
Harrow makes the International Award Expeditions Skills a compulsory part of Year 9 and all Year 9 students complete a training hike as part of the ‘Adventurous Journey’ component of the International Award Scheme. After this, Assessed and Training Journeys for Bronze up to Gold are run on a voluntary basis where students are free to decide when to complete more of the Award.
The 2009-10 year of expeditions started out with a continuation of our Gold Adventurous Journey for twelve Year 12 and 13 students in what we believe to be the first ever descent of the Pasak River by kayak over two trips of four days from the Pasak Jolasid Dam via Saraburi to Ayutthaya. In October 2008, twelve students travelled by bus with our own kayaks to the Dam where we launched the kayaks. All twelve students covered the first 70 km showing great self reliance and resilience over the four days to Saraburi for their Gold Training Journey. Last October in 2009, we completed the journey by travelling by kayak from Saraburi to Ayutthaya for their Gold Assessment. All students successfully journeyed to Ayutthaya without assistance surviving mosquitoes, huge rice barges on the river and obstacles where the kayaks had to be carried. We hope to present several Gold Certificates to students this year.
In January and March 2009 the Year 9 students did the usual Khao Yai Training Hike but since there were over 120 students to deal with, the groups were always going to be large. Owing to a postponement to January due to the political protests, and an uneven split of House student numbers, the March group turned out to be as big as 79 which was our biggest ever. For the Silver Asssessed Kayaking Expedition to Sam Roi Yot National Park in May we doubled our usual number to 20 by taking our own kayaks in addition to hiring some at the Khao Daeng Boat Camp. The weather over the three days turned out to be a lot more stormy than usual with winds battering and flattening our tents in the early hours of our second day and a steady headwind with choppy seas on the paddle north to the caves and campsites. The tide was out for our first campsite which required some serious dragging of the boats through thick mud up the shore which covered at least 1 – 1.5 km. The students worked well in their pairs in spite of some sea-sickness and all managed to explore the caves after the long hours of paddling on the second day. On the way back the wind was in our favour as were the tides. No students needed any help from staff so all passed with flying colours – an excellent effort all round.
I would like to thank the following staff for their help this year: Mr. Ross (now 2ic), Mr. Towse, Mr. van den Berg, Mr. Waugh, Mr. Corry, Mr. Rowlands, Khun Kate, Khun Jeed, Mr. Stalder, Mr. Brown, Miss Evans, Miss Jurado, Khun Nuchy, Ms Moir, Mrs Sapphira, Mr. Beaudin, Mr. Prout, Miss Dava, Khun Pum, Khun Nimit, Gap year students Cathy, Cameron, Linda, Mr. Eades from Bromsgrove School and Nurse Noo.
Steve Beer – International / Duke of Edinburgh Award Coordinator.
