By Eva L., Eylül M., and Julia S., Grade 9
Students at DofE camp near tents on the 26th of April (Ms Temple, DofE organiser)
Have you ever thought about having a sleepover at school?
With the Duke of Edinburgh students from 9th grade, we had an eventful overnight camp at school on the 26th of April to the 27th. The main activities were cooking, learning how to set up equipment and planning our routes. This was a practice overnight for our final expedition where we travel further away and walk 30km in 2 days.
Some students gathering by the washing up bowl in DofE, on the 27th of April (Ms. Temple DofE organiser)
Students from Duke of Edinburgh said that they found the cooking part the most exciting.
Ms. Berkman, one of our supervisors, said, “There were lots of really creative meals.”
The teachers walked around observing everyone and testing their cooking skills. Some groups even made small testers for the teachers, who then gave their opinions on the meals. Ms. Berkman said she enjoyed the pasta with beans, spinach, and lots more, and she really liked the homemade guacamole as well.
Not only did the teachers enjoy our cooking, but the students also did. Since lots of people didn’t have much energy, the food really helped.
Students said things like, “The food helped me survive” (Lavinia S., Grade 9), or “My favourite part was eating” (Seva I., Grade 9).
There were some difficulties with making the food because we only had certain pans and a gas stove. We had to turn the heat on correctly and be able to get the timing right for the cooking, so it was a struggle sometimes.
Seva said, “We burnt the pan and had to clean for an hour”
His group definitely wasn’t the only group that had to clean up for a while. All the pans needed a good clean because some of the food burnt the bottoms of the pans. The supervisors were also checking how clean they were so some groups even had to clean them multiple times until they were approved. That didn’t stop people from still having fun though, and students’ favourite part was still being able to cook.
Lavinia said, “Next time we definitely have to bring all the ingredients”
There were struggles whilst cooking but every group overcame them differently. Some group ran out of ingredients and had to ask others if they could borrow some, whereas other groups had certain members who did the cooking.
Seva said, “I’m not planning the cooking; I’m just being given the recipe and then I cook.”
There were lots of different roles and attitudes throughout this camp, but it made it fun because we were able to bond and interact with other students whilst being outdoors.
Some students cooking guacamole at the over night camp, DofE, on the 26th of April (Ms Temple DofE organiser)
What stayed on Many students’ memories from the night was how cold it was during the night and they struggled with sleeping. The cold was a big problem and since it was the first overnight expedition for the bronze group, the cold was unexpected. It gave students a hard time. A DofE Bronze student Isabella D., Grade 9 said, “Sleeping at 3am. We looked outside and there was frost, and you were like I can’t wait till its over”.
As it was -2 degrees, it was really hard to adapt to the cold. There where also tents but they didn’t really help with the cold.
Another student Alex K., Grade 9 said, “Waking up in the morning and having to go to the LADC because everything was freezing.”
The fact that students had the opportunity to go to LADC where we had heating, so they went there right when they woke up. Even-though being with our friends where so fun and we always tried to make this camp enjoyable by having nice, deep conversations, the cold was unbearable, and it was really hard to manage. The duke of edinburg overnight camp was a great experience but all of us where freezing. At the end the fact that we all went to the LADC building made us collaborate and be really thankful for having each other in a normal temperature. We faced challenges and we overcame them.
Students gathering around a campfire at night on the 26th of April (Ms Temple DofE organiser)
As we asked various students and one teacher about what they thought of D of E we got similar answers.
Isabella said, “You were going to be really self-reliant on yourself and it was really really cold.”
This might have been because we needed to care for our own food and be very independent during the whole expedition.
“Students need to be not only physically ready but mentally ready too.” (Ms. Berkman., Supervisor)
By this Ms. Berkman wanted to point out that people needed to think strategically to come to a concluding goal. You would need to be mentally strong and developed when planning out the roots for the summative 30km walk such as working collaboratively with others I think these people acknowledged that they needed to work on using their mindsets to solve different types of problems. We think that D of E was hard but also fun due to many people who were part of it having a great time with their friends and form stronger bonds with them. It was hard because as the people mentioned above you needed to use your own thinking which was challenging for some people in the camp.
Student cooking a marshmallow at a campfire, DofE, on the 26th of April (Eylül M., Grade 9)