The first weekend of October is always our Upper V Silver DofE Expedition Training weekend. This year our Upper V cohort were up nice and early on Saturday and headed off to deepest Oxfordshire for a weekend of skills training. We split down into our expedition groups and worked with a team of external expedition instructors and experienced Abbey teachers. There is an awful lot to cover and students learned how to put tents up, how to take tents down, how to navigate, what all the symbols on a map might mean, how to use the camp stoves safely, what food makes good expedition food, how to organise our tents, first aid and how to plan routes. Packing a full expedition rucksack was probably one of the hardest things to master, and will be a key skill to remember when we come back on our next Silver DofE Expedition, which is our Practice Expedition in March. We are working towards our Upper V students being able to undertake a multi day walking expedition in the countryside, both self sufficient and unaccompanied. Our Upper V students were brilliant this weekend, interested in learning the skills and also trying out things for the first time, such as cooking pancakes on camp stoves. Overall it was an enjoyable weekend with Upper Vs bringing positivity and fun to a windy field in Oxfordshire! Well done to everyone involved.