We all hope that our children succeed in school, achieve good results and go on to do great things with their lives. However, their general wellbeing and happiness plays a huge part in their future success. For this reason, working on helping our children to develop their self-confidence and independence from an early age is crucial.
The Mini and Junior Duke is there to help with all of this by giving children the opportunity to participate in a variety of new experiences. It teaches them that it is good to ‘have a go’ and challenges them to learn new and varied skills from an early age. By enrolling in the award, children will learn that you may not always succeed the first time and that this is okay. This helps them to develop the resilience they will need throughout their lives.
About the Award
There are six levels:
Silver Mini Duke, Gold Mini Duke, Bronze Junior Duke, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Each of these levels has fourteen challenges and, in order to complete a level, the children need to finish ten of these successfully.
These include skills such as First Aid, ICT, Languages, Art, Drama, Music, Sport and other life skills such as cookery and puncture repair as well as a range of cultural challenges.
The children may be given some of the necessary skills in school, but most of the challenges will require some time and effort out of school with you at home.
On completion of a level, a certificate and a badge will be awarded during assembly.
Unfortunately, the scheme does not run in the Secondary School, so children working on their Platinum level need to finish by the end of summer term.
Last year we successfully ran this award within the Primary school, led by Mrs Coverdale. So many children were inspired and with support from their parents were able to achieve their awards. We would like to continue this and encourage more children to sign up and take advantage of this wonderful initiative.
Please look out for a letter coming out soon from Mrs Coverdale to explain how you can sign your child up for this.
by Christine BEARMAN,
Head of Primary
