Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sir Tom Farmers Visit To The South East Office
When Sir Tom Farmer, Chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Trustees and Peter Westgarth visited the South East on the 28th June, their objective was to view the Regional 
Offices and meet the staff. There was also time for them however to join in a discussion concerning future developments with key Award supporters. Key areas highlighted against future developments were the recruitment and retention of adult volunteers, the cost of training, child protection, and the move for youth service to work with targeted young people with accredited outcomes.
The top right picture shows Sir Tom Farmer presenting the South East’s first regional sponsor with a certificate. We are pleased to welcome Alistair Cole and Adventure Lifesigns to the Region.
Sir Tom Farmers Visit to The Magna Carta School
Following his visit to the South East Office Sir Tom along with Peter Westgarth and Simon Whitmore travelled to The Magna Carta School to see the Award in action.
Over 150 young people all involved in the Award and a large number of staff who volunteer their time for the Award stayed after school to meet Sir Tom.
The displays the young people put together were without fault and represented the Award as a whole. Photographic presentations of the Expeditions Section combined with personal accounts highlighted the uniqueness of this section.
First Aid demonstrations highlighted how the young people are learning life skills as part of their Award and how their newly found skills are benefiting their community. Others had put on a production of the Wizard of Oz including all the backstage and behind the scenes work required to make a production successful.
Many young people talked about their various activities as part of the Physical Recreation Section again highlighting the diversity of opportunity available to young people.
Gold Award Participants who return to the school to complete their Award from a local VIth Form College presented their Residential Project by recounting a trip to Morocco.
A huge thank you to all the staff at The Magna Carta School and to the young people who represented the Award in action to such a high
standard.
Adventure Lifesigns
We are extremely pleased to announce that the South East Region is now supported by Adventure Lifesigns, who on the 1st of September 2007 became our Premier Regional Sponsor.
Adventure Lifesigns provide a huge range of services to both young people and adults, including international expeditions, navigation awards, national governing body awards, first aid training, and remote medical training to name but a few.
As such, their support will be focused primarily on the training elements of regional activity, and we are pleased to recognise their support in producing this newsletter.
If you would like any further details on the services they provide please visit: http://www.adventurelifesigns.co.uk/.
Staff Changes for Award Officers
Ali Moore - Ali has left Bracknell-Forest to work for West Berkshire as an Area Youth Worker.
We would like to welcome Karen Dynan and Laura Reed to Bracknell Forest. Karen has worked for Bracknell Forest Council for 4 years as the Quality Assurance and Training Manager. Previous to this Karen ran a youth centre for Wokingham District Council for nearly 12 years.
Peter Littlefield - Peter joined the South East as the Award Officer of Portsmouth in January 2002. Previously to this Peter was the Outdoor Education Manager. We wish him all the best for his retirement.
Amanda Green - Has worked within Portsmouth City Council for 8 years and took up the post as Award Officer in June 2007.
Kier Schiltz - Acting Award Officer for Surrey
Until a new appointment is made in Slough please contact Pinder Sagoo regarding Award information in that area.
Gold Award Presentations
On the 12th July over 900 young people were presented with their Gold Award at Windsor Castle. Luckily the rain held off and a lovely day was had by all.
The South East were lucky to have six groups of young people from Slough, Surrey, Kent and Medway along with many others from the Region.
Groups were introduced to Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, as well as meeting some inspirational celebrities.
Stop Press!
National Road Show
This event will take place in the South East Region in May 2008. Details to be confirmed. Please see enclosed programme details.
Millennium Volunteers
Millennium Volunteers certificates are still available from Heather. Please see contact details below.
Contact No: 02392 698 840
E-mail: hmcconsultancy@btinternet.com
Training Courses
First Aid
We are very pleased to announce the South East Region is now affiliated with the British Heart Foundations Heartstart UK initiative. The scheme is set up to provide members of the community with basic training in emergency life support by attending a free 2 hour course. Anyone aged over 10 can attend a course and receive a certificate of attendance.
Anyone interested in delivering the course as part of the Regional Delivery Team needs to contact Simon in the office. An instructor’s course has been scheduled for Saturday 3rd November; the course is free, although if you would like lunch there is a £10 charge. To attend the course you must hold a current First Aid Certificate (min 16 hours) and be able to evidence your coaching/instructing or teaching
experience.
There are also First Aid at Work (4 day), Outdoor Emergency (2 day) and Emergency Aid (1 day) courses booked throughout the year. Details can be found on the Regional Diary Dates page of this newsletter and on the
website.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Courses
Expedition Assessor Accreditation The new expedition assessor accreditation scheme will be
operational from the 1st January 2008. This course replaces the current Wild Country Assessor Scheme which has been running for the past 15 years
The new scheme is a more generic course covering all elements and levels of the Expeditions Section. Those attending the course will become accredited at Bronze, Silver or Gold level depending on their personal experience and need.
The one day course will have certain pre-requisites for attendance such as attendance at an Introduction to the Award course to ensure those assessing have an understanding of the full Award. A Regional Training Team will be set up to deliver the course led by Simon, those wishing to become either Course Directors or Course Tutors need to contact Simon to discuss the process, numbers will be strictly limited and those wishing to become Course Directors will have to apply and then attend the necessary training.
Modular Training Framework
The templates for the MTF certificates are now available from the Regional Office for those who have begun to deliver courses under the framework. Anyone proposing to deliver a course under the MTF could you please let Simon have the details so that he can monitor the use of the MTF. As the Regional Training Team develops quality assurance visits may be introduced using experienced trainers from around the Region to ensure standards are maintained to share good practice.
Information For Award Officers….
Conference for Independent Schools at Lancing College
We look forward to meeting all the Independent School Operating Authority Award Officers at the very picturesque setting of Lancing College on the 6th November 2007. We hope all will be in attendance.
The day is due to start at 10:00am. Objectives to be discussed at this
conference include:
· The new OA Licence.
· IT Infrastructure Developments.
· New Award Material.
· The Modular Training Framework..
· Licence Reviews.
Please bring any questions you may have regarding any of these topics on the day.
Brighton Conference
The SE Regional Annual Conference is now confirmed for Friday 25th and Saturday 26th January 2008. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn, Brighton on the Friday and will be focused on the changing youth agenda. The intended audience are all Award Officers, their line managers and Principle Youth Officers or equivalent.
The Saturday is to be held at Lancing College, West Sussex with focus moving to good practice at all levels of the Award. The day will be focused at everyone involved in the Award from all Operating Authorities. The reasoning behind the decision to hold the course on a Saturday was to allow volunteers, group leaders, assessors, supervisors etc to attend in order to allow any
messages to be delivered directly to the practitioners who deal with young people involved in the Award on a daily or weekly basis.
SERCO Bursary’s
Please note that there is money still available for the 2007/2008 year.
If you require the application forms please contact Angharad at the South East Office:
angharad.purser@theaward.org
So far the South East have given grants to Brighton and Hove in order to enable 6 young people from 2 Award Groups to be able to take part on their Gold expedition. The bursary enabled the young people to purchase expedition equipment as well as funding part of their gold expedition assessment.
Grants from the South East Office have also been given to young people Isle of Wight and West Sussex.
