Posted on: May 6th 2025

Duke of Edinburgh's Award

The DofE season is finally upon us with our first Bronze DofE groups setting off on their expeditions next weekend. This year will see our largest ever Bronze Cohort complete their expeditions followed by Silver and Gold groups later this Summer. Pupils are already hard at work completing their skills, volunteering and physical activity sections of the Awards.

The Awards this year will be celebrated in the loving memory of our former colleague and DofE Leader, Paul Worrell, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Many of you will know Paul either through his time at Bishop Wand or in his most recent role, as caretaker at Laleham CofE Primary School. Many of you will not know Paul but will be aware of his lasting legacy at Bishop Wand due to his involvement with the DofE Award.

Paul took over the running of the DofE award in 2012 when the school was only getting a handful of students participating in the Bronze and Silver awards. Within a few years of Paul running the award, he had huge uptake, both in students looking to complete the award and staff looking to help out in order to be the cheapest in the area!

Paul was an expert navigator, calm in a crisis but most importantly knew how to inspire and motivate students and staff with his great sense of humour and calm demeanour. The respect he earned from students was unfounded. He put hours into the award beyond the expeditions, supporting students with their volunteering and in the summer every weekend was given over to DofE. The Award grew so big in the school that by the time Paul left us in 2021 we were the largest school provider of the DofE Award in Surrey providing Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Furthermore, despite having left the school, Paul still came back to run the Gold expeditions in the summer of 2021 and to support Mrs Leonard and I in assessing our first expeditions in 2022. He was inspiring.

Paul saw in excess of 1000 students receive awards across the three levels. The school continues to see huge numbers of students participate in the award due to the foundations and legacy Paul put in place.

In his new job, Paul delivered talks each year to Year 6 students about the DofE Award, the opportunities it provides and why it is such a big part of secondary school, still inspiring future generations even when he left Bishop Wand. His legacy will continue and he will remain in our thoughts during this time.

Mr Bowman Collins

Director of Rugby