April 2014 – Reigate Grammar School DofE

Elizabeth Rizzini, UK Met Office meteorologist and BBC weather presenter, presented our students with their DofE Awards last night at our annual award evening here at Reigate Grammar School. Lizzie gave an inspiring talk after presenting awards to hundreds of our students including 27 Gold Awards.

Simon Elson, our conservation day organiser from Reigate Area Conservation Volunteers, was our special guest who was there so that we could formally thank him and his team for years of outstanding outdoor education in modern local conservation.

U6 Gold Award holders gave outstanding speeches about their experiences. Very well done to the eight brave souls who gave extremely impressive and inspiring accounts of their DofE experiences: Will Appleyard, George Brill, Hugo Evans, Claire Forster, Laura Mak, Matthew Norman, Emily Ruiz and Charlotte Ward.

This year four L6 Gold students ran the entire evening and they did it superbly! Alanah Sheridan, Emma Findlater, Katy Welsh and Rosie Stanley hosted the event from start to finish and also organised displays and running order beforehand. They were pioneers of this new style of student-run event and it shows how RGS students will rise to any challenge. Well done, outstanding. They also joined DofE staff for dinner with Lizzie Rizzini afterwards.

We hope parents and students enjoyed this special evening and congratulations again to all those students for being so determined to get their award and thanks to parents for the support as well.

On Tuesday 1st April the new Bronze dofe students embarked on their first conservation day. This one was at PetridgeWood between Salfords and Earlswood. It is near the cricket pitch visible from the main road. This was an area of mixed woodland and open ground allowing certain rare native plants to thrive. Scrub encroachment has caused a loss of biodiversity and the conservation group worked hard to clear trees to recreate the diverse heath previously found here. The group worked exceptionally hard throughout the day and the RACV were most impressed, as was the local authority countryside warden who inspected our work. The team listened especially well to advice and learned a great deal about safe and efficient felling and clearing, as well as open fire safety.