While Hertfordshire basked in the first spring sunshine, forty-eight intrepid Bishop’s Stortford College pupils faced the 
winds, rain and snow drifts of the Derbyshire hills on their Duke of Edinburgh Silver practice expedition over the last weekend of the Easter holidays.
The cries of ‘but it didn’t rain on our Bronze so I didn’t think I would need waterproofs, hats , gloves etc’ and ‘ I can’t fit everything into my rucksack’ resounded around various campsites as the large party of fifteen and sixteen year olds battled the elements and the freezing camping conditions. Thermals were definitely the order of the day.
Despite the weather, however, the eight groups all completed the three day venture, a lot wiser, more tired than when they had started and with renewed determination to listen to the classroom training that little bit harder!