Last Friday a number of our fantastic students were invited to Buckingham Palace for a Garden Party. Every year young people who have achieved a Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award are invited for a Celebration Event. This year a number of Abbey students, and ex students were invited as they had recently completed Gold DofE Awards.

We managed to meet up with a few and it was great to see a number of current Upper VI as well as students from as far back as ‘class of 2020’, and many in between. The aim of the event is to celebrate achievements and to inspire everyone to move forward with the next phase of their lives. Approximately two thousand Gold Award holders attend in their best outfits and there is a real celebratory air to the event.

We heard speeches from The Duke of Edinburgh himself, an inspirational speech from Alex Scott and a few other celebrities such as Larry Lamb and Victoria Derbyshire were also speaking at various satellite stages in the gardens. It was a brilliant event.

Well done to all our Gold DofE Award holders. Hopefully this will also act as a bit of encouragement to those currently progressing through their Gold DofE Awards. As the Duke of Edinburgh said “There are many people who say ‘I could have done the Gold DofE Award’, but the reality is, they didn’t and those who are here actually have completed it, and should be proud of their achievements.”