Tim Hardcastle, a teacher at Royal High School Bath, has been involved in the running of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for an incredible 25 years.
Mr Hardcastle works as Head of Higher Education supporting students looking at progressing onto university, and was previously Head of Science at Royal High School Bath. On top of his busy role at the school, he has also been running the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for the last 19 years and for 6 years at his previous teaching role at Prior Park College.
In the last academic year alone, 81 students have enrolled to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award with 4 completing Gold, 15 Silver and 27 Bronze awards.
Tim Hardcastle said: “I thoroughly enjoy helping to run the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme at Royal High School Bath. It offers a wide variety of experiences to our students and it’s wonderful to see them learning new skills and developing their resilience, self-motivation and independence. Although I’ve helped many children to take part in DofE over the last 25 years, it’s still a very proud moment when I see our students receiving their awards. I’m looking forward to my continued participation and supporting many more students to reach their goals in the future.”
The DofE programme is open to 14-25 year-olds at one of three progressive levels which, when successfully completed, leads to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. There are four sections to complete at Bronze and Silver level and five at Gold. They involve volunteering, developing new skills, being physically active, completing an expedition as a team and, for Gold only, meeting new people on a residential project.
Featured image: Tim