Three expeditions were made to the Isle of Arran this year with thirty Year 12 participants taking their Gold Award.

A few quotations:

• D of E has increased my confidence and made me realise that I can achieve things if I have the will power to do so. It would have been easy to give up on the first day but D of E brings out an inner determination!

• Getting lost on Day One really brought down the morale of the whole group and to be honest there were times when we all wanted to go home!

• The gold expedition was one of the best but hardest things I have done so far!

• Sing! It gets you up the hills, makes the food cook faster and makes the bus journey shorter (we would like to apologise to Mr P, who had to endure eight hours of non-stop karaoke).

As ever, Kingsley is enormously grateful to Mr and Mrs Palliser, who give up so much of their time to help the girls to achieve these valuable awards.