Celebrating success at Holyrood Palace

During the Gold Award Presentation, HRH congratulated the group from Lomond School on their successes and heard about their DofE journeys, which took each young person 12-18 months of hard work and dedication.

Those who achieve a Gold DofE Award will volunteer, learn a skill, get fit, take part in a week long residential and plan and undertake an expedition in wild country. Widely acknowledged as the world’s leading achievement award for young people, DofE programmes enable any young person, aged 14-24, to develop key skills for life and work, such as confidence, commitment and team working.

Nicola Harwood, who is the DofE Manager at Lomond School attended the presentation to see the group receive their Gold Awards, and said, The DofE gives young people the chance to do something completely new and improve on things that they are already doing. It takes them out of their comfort zone and helps them to develop their teamwork.  The Award help them to build confidence, resilience, skills for work and friendship groups.

Speaking about her DofE experience, Sophie Monteith, who was one of the Gold Award holders at last week’s presentation, said, “The Award has helped to open doors for me as it has shown employers that I can commit and am hardworking as I have worked though the Bronze, Silver and Gold Award programme.  The Award has strengthened my relationships and helped me to continue to improve my fitness and allowed me to help others, both of which I will continue in the future.   I really enjoyed the canoeing expedition that I did for Gold and it gave me lots to talk about at interviews.