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Posted on February 25th 2015
Amy's Award at the Palace
Article written by Amy Dunning, former Sixth Form student
After 18 months of dancing, 12 months of volunteering in a charity shop, 6 months of writing for a small newspaper, 2 weeks in India on my residential expedition and 5 days hiking in the Welsh mountains I have finally received my Gold Duke of Edinburgh award.
In early February I had the great honour to be invited to St James Palace, which is not open to the public to receive my Gold award. There were around 200 young people receiving their award on the same day as me, with only roughly 500 being awarded the Gold annually! I felt very lucky to be there.
Completing the award at an institute in London meant that my ceremony was held in the best room in the palace: the throne room. The official state throne was right next to where we were sitting. The ceremony was led by actor James Callis who answered a few of our questions and gave us our gold award brooches and certificates.
Of course, the ceremony would not have been complete without a royal visit. Prince Edward made the rounds and spoke to us in groups, asking about our experiences, the high and low points, and most importantly whether we would recommend the award to others.
I had such a brilliant experience with the Duke of Edinburgh award and I highly recommend it to all. For those of you who would like to try a new sport or skill, or maybe even volunteer with St John’s ambulance to learn about medicine, it is a brilliant opportunity. It also looks great on your CV and for University applications.
A special thank you to Mr Merryweather who was a brilliant leader and I couldn’t have completed this award without his help.
