Ice? What ice?  The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme attracts huge interest each year and Mr John Luttick and Mr Paul Davies, assisted by other noble teachers, train dozens of enthusiastic pupils ear year on Bronze, Silver and occasionally Gold expeditions.  Amelia Coe describes her latest experience:

Being Chilly in the Chilterns-overnight anyway…

The experience I encountered over the weekend was like no event I have ever come across. The extremes in highs and lows and most importantly, the over riding sense of achievement and satisfaction which comes upon the completion of the 2 days, was astonishing.

Our group worked extremely well together, quickly recognising each other’s strengths and weaknesses and working as a team to combat them. We managed to all get along well (apart from a few disputes about the merits of Pot Noodle!) and walked extremely efficiently despite the heat which meant that we arrived early on both days, giving us good time to set up camp and be smugly working on our tans by the time the other groups arrived. The whole experience was a wonderful jumble of sun, ice, sore feet, bad cooking, back ache, beautiful scenery, noisy animals, bad singing and most prominently, lots of laughter. Although, having completed the weekend has made me hurt in more places than I thought possible, the fun and satisfaction gained from whole experience makes me really look forward to doing it all again.

Amelia Coe, Year 10