05 Sep 2024
Congratulations to a group of 9 Year 12 and 17 Year 11 students who travelled to Schofields Dairy Farm in the Southern Highlands recently to complete the Gold Duke of Edinburgh International Award Framework 5-Day Residential with students staying in the town Avoca.
The dairy farm has over 330 producing cows not including the 100+ calves and a dozen bulls. Students were required to wake up at 4:15 am to walk the 1km trip through the farm to be ready assist in milking the cows at 5:00am. This same process occurred at 3:00pm for the afternoon milking each day. The students cooked breakfast and provided coffee for all the dairy farming staff each morning. During the day following the morning milking students would partake in weed pulling, wood chopping and maintenance around the homestead of the farm.
The Gold Residential Project is for Gold Award participants only. This section of The Duke of Ed encourages students to broaden their life experience by working with others towards a common goal. It takes place in a residential setting over 4 nights and 5 days. It encourages personal achievements, enhanced social connections with new and interesting people and is a truly life changing experience. The opportunity continued to build the resilience, determination and other capacity required to have a bright and successful future.
The Residential marks the end of the Gold Level requirements for our 2024 Year 12 students with the Year 11 students completing their 9-day Adventurous Journey during the next school vacation period in October where they will travel to Uluru and other areas within the Northern Territory.
I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate Mr. Canning and Ms. McKenzie for the incredible work they continue to undertake in leading and managing the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Framework. In this instance for the tremendous work they undertook in organising Plumpton High School’s first Gold Level Residential, one of the components required for successful completion of the Award. This involved taking our 9 Year 12 and 17 Year 11 students for the 5-day Residential.
On behalf of the school and personally I would also like to extend sincere thanks to the NSW and National Office of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Framework for their support and guidance that has culminated in the first group of 9 Year 12 Plumpton High School students completing the Bronze, Silver and Gold Level Awards.
Tim Lloyd, Principal
