Pupils, parents and teachers from the Girls’ and Boys’ Divisions of Bolton School gathered to celebrate this year’s Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards winners.

Head of Foundation Mr Britton congratulated students on achieving their awards during what has been an extraordinary time.

He thanked parents for their help in delivering and picking up pupils in remote locations daily during their Covid-affected expeditions and praised the girls and boys for being imaginative in completing their service, physical and skills sections of the awards.

The Silver Awards were handed out by former pupil and Pyranha Kayaks’ marketing manager Matthew Wilkinson and the Gold Awards by Head of Girls’ Division, Mrs Kyle, the recipients of which would receive their actual certificates at a venue in London in the near future.

Gold awardees James Hopkinson and Celia Logan and silver awardees Ellis Matthews and Iman Javid reflected on their achievements.

All spoke about learning the importance of giving time and assistance to others and said that they would highly recommend the Award to fellow pupils.

Old Boy Mathew congratulated all those receiving awards and recalled how he too had achieved the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.

Mr Britton offered a Vote of Thanks and commended the teachers who coordinated the DofE student activities – Mr Jones, both Mr Bradleys and Miss Dean in Boys’ Division and Ms Marrs and Miss Lindle in Girls’ Division.