Seventeen bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award students from Falmouth School set off on their practice expedition last week.

This involved refreshing, recapping and putting into practice all of their training that they had worked tirelessly on for several months. The day started with a first aid refresher before looking at their routes and making sure everyone's kit was in order. The aim of the weekend was to cover about 20 kilometres, building on their newly acquired skills in map reading and navigation.

The students split into three groups before setting of on three different looping walks to Maenporth. All groups soon found how much harder it is to walk whilst carrying all of their kit and in the heat that we had on the Saturday.

The groups returned to the school grounds where they pitched camp for the night and continued with their training drills. These included looking at camp management and cooking on a range of different stoves, as well as a debrief from the first days walk. For a first expedition the pupils cooked a range of hot meals, from the staple pasta and pesto, to chilli and pork meat balls to ensure they had sufficient energy to get them through.

The next morning saw the teams keen to get the day over as a weather front moved in earlier than forecast and the group had to contend with mist and heavy rain for the entirety of the walk. The second day was more about independence within the groups and taking complete control of their navigation. All three teams had a loop walk out towards the reservoirs before returning to school. Pupils found it harder going with the rain and wind but worked well to complete the walk and are now ready for their final expedition in a couple of weeks.

Falmouth School teacher Ben Tregear was impressed with the efforts of the students. “They were fantastic all weekend," he said. "They built on their team work and communication skills and there was a real togetherness. They really seemed to enjoy themselves and on their walk they were even signing at times.”