A day at the Palace

Last Monday I had an invite to Buckingham Palace. Two students were to be presented with their gold awards for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. James Bevan and Aoife Hooper were the recipients and it was a very proud occasion for students’ family and school.  It was such a pleasure to be there along side Mr Davies who puts so much time into all things D of E.  It was such a wonderful event and I was delighted that Aoife and Ed got to meet the Duke himself. The award is a real challenge and achieving gold is no mean feat. I think there are 55 students this year in year 10 working towards the bronze award.

This week I asked some students which co-curricular activities they took part in and the answer surprised me, “none”! Even more shocking was the fact that they didn’t take part in activities outside of school either. This is a rare thing at Cathedral and I emphasised the importance of taking part in the full school assembly on Friday. Education is so much more than the subjects we teach and learn, it is about developing into well rounded, confident, articulate young people. We have changed the title to co-curricular subjects deliberately, perhaps we should get rid of the co!