Learning leadership with the Duke of Edinburgh Award Expedition

Wellington offers the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award to all eligible pupils, and the last week of term during the previous academic year saw six groups of pupils from year 10 take on the ‘Adventurous Expedition’ element of the programme. The groups headed to the Lingshan Natural Scenic Area, a beautiful and mountainous parkland situated three hours west of Beijing. Prior to the expedition, pupils were involved in a great deal of preparation and training for the considerable task ahead of them. While each group had a member of Wellington staff and a JUMP! Foundation member with them for safety reasons, one pupil from each group was designated its leader. The group leaders, Alice, Julia, Ethan, Josh, Moksh and Aspen completed a pupil leadership training course, organised by Dr Nikki Bache. During their training, these young leaders quickly discovered that there’s a lot more to leadership than looking at a map and pointing confidently!   Planning ahead Alice: The course was a really challenging mix of sessions which took us through what we could expect from every part of the expedition. In the weekly sessions Dr Bache organised, we started to build up a whole list of different skills and planning considerations that would be a big help in making sure we got it right in Lingshan! Ethan: Every session covered something different. We learned First Aid with Ms Tang the College’s nurse, route planning strategies, cooking and meal plan, campcraft – where we practised putting up tents and using portable camp stoves and gas canisters – map reading and navigation skills, and environmental considerations in the ‘leave no trace’ session. Julia: Health and safety was a big consideration in everything we did. We needed to make sure that we knew the risks involved and how to deal with anything that might happen during the expedition. We thought carefully about avoiding sunburn and dehydration, as well as possible situations where we might need to use our First Aid skills.   Learning the skills and attitude needed to tackle the wilds Aspen: Through these sessions, we all quickly realised that preparing for the trip would involve a lot of work! However, we also realised that the more planning we did, the better prepared we would be. Josh: We spent a lot of time discussing how best to work together as a group to get things done. We made meal plans, route cards, practised setting up and breaking down the camp, and planned responses to risks and emergencies that could happen. Moksh: I really enjoyed learning all of the practical skills. Even the little things that sound obvious once you know them made a big difference, like packing our bags properly to evenly distribute their weight. I like how I’ve learned a lot of useful skills of life, as well as working on my leadership abilities.   Putting it into practice Ethan: Our chance to show what we had learned came when we did a 6-hour practice hike around Shanghai to get a better idea of the challenges and realities we would be facing in the main expedition. We started at Century Park and walked back to school from there, carrying our backpacks and tents with us. When we got back, we pitched our tents and cooked a meal on the portable burners, which also give us a good sense of what we would be doing and how it would feel to go on a long hike and have to set up camp afterwards. Alice: I think one of the most useful things about the training course and the practice hike was that it allowed us to try things, sometimes get them wrong and then figure out a better way to do them next time. For example, on the practice hike we found that we needed to split up the tent gear otherwise it was too heavy for the people carrying the tents. Even little changes and tweaks to the plan made all the difference. Aspen: It was really good to do the practice hike but of course we realised that it would be a lot tougher when we did it for real in Lingshan – we wouldn’t have flat terrain and city landmarks to help us out for starters!   Ready to go, ready to lead Josh: Along with the practical skills, we all discussed our thoughts about how we could motivate the rest of our groups. We knew from the practice hike that it would be hard, that we would need to keep people’s spirits up and make sure that the group stuck together – for morale and for safety. Moksh: Being positive and patient were two things that came up a lot in our discussions. We knew we needed to accept that there were different personalities in our group and we had to get the best out of everyone by encouraging them to work together and stay positive no matter what happened. Julia: What was great was that some of us had leadership experience and some of us didn’t, so we covered lots of different ideas and I think we all went away better prepared to lead our groups well. Alice: The experience taught us that a leader has to think of so many different things. They have to plan ahead so the group doesn’t get into trouble that they could have avoided. They have to make decisions when things get tough but also ask for advice and help. They have to keep being positive even if they’re tired, hungry or hurt, or all three! Ethan: I think we all really wanted to challenge ourselves with this course and by participating in the DofE Award in general. I loved every minute of it and I felt that it was something important for me to do to see how I managed in a situation that’s very different from your average learning experience. Aspen: I definitely felt ready for the expedition when it was time to go. I remember feeling that this trip would make all of us in our groups better friends as we took on this big exciting challenge. We had planned well, we knew our practical skills and, most importantly, we knew everyone in our groups would bring different strengths to the table. As leaders, we were ready to bring all of those strengths together. We look forward to a subsequent review of the Duke of Edinburgh Adventurous Expedition and Senior School expeditions, as we find out if the reality of the adventure matched up with our young leaders’ expectations.   More relevant articles :

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• Pupils JUMP into leadership training for upcoming expeditions
• The next great adventure | Senior School expeditions programm