Rejus have been sponsoring Campsmount Academy students to complete their Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) since 2017. Over the last few years, the students have faced more challenges to completing their award than the majority of participants in the DofE Award’s long history, and Rejus are proud to be able to say we’ve both stood by and escalated our commitment to Campsmount Academy in that time.
Earlier this year we received an incredibly insightful update from the DofE that informed us of the impact of our sponsorship. Read on to learn more about the impact the sponsorship has had.
The Duke of Edinburgh Award aims to offer students valuable life experience that includes learning new skills and challenging themselves to partake in personal growth. The aim of this is to better prepare them for working life and the variety of challenges they’ll face following school. Recognising that not every student can afford to partake in this tremendous opportunity, Babs and Mathew Lynds of Rejus initially committed to sponsoring Year 10 students to complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. This initial commitment would grow and expand, eventually reaching the point that any student at the school could access the opportunity from Year 9.
The above-discussed initial investment with Campsmount School between the years of 2017 to 2020 allowed an impressive 503 students to partake in the life-altering opportunity. Not only did students get to complete their Bronze DofE award, the volunteering aspect of the programme went on to have a recognisable positive impact on the local community.
Some achievements of this initial span include:
- A massive 14,280 Hours of volunteer time being spent contributing to the people of Doncaster.
- That’s the equivalent to an impressive £75,398 worth of voluntary work.
- 128 of those students went on to complete a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award.
- We were proud to see that the sponsorship led to a 37% increase of marginalised students starting their DofE Award.
- Overall, there was an incredible 295% increase in students starting their Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards
A former Campsmount student of the time, Josie, went on to complete her Gold DofE Award. Speaking on the impact of the award, she stated:
"The DofE has given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone, a sense of independence and an ability to overcome challenges. It taught me about team work as everyone brought different skills, different personalities to the group and that's what made us work. We learned how to problem solve as we stood, lost, in the middle of a field and had to think rationally about how we could get back on track.
These are lessons I won't be afraid to apply in the future to different situations."
- Josie, 2021 DofE Youth Ambassador.
Seeing the fantastic impact the sponsorship had, Rejus decided to step up their contribution in 2021.
As detailed in our initial announcement article, Rejus committed to a 10-Year Partnership with the Duke of Edinburgh Award and Campsmount Academy, allowing more participants and applying unused budget to let interested students partake in their Silver or even Gold Awards. The opportunity works on an auto enrolment and opt out basis for year 9 students, allowing Campsmount to adopt the DofE as a key part of student development.
Some achievements of the first year of our commitment include:
- 128% more students starting their DofE at Campsmount.
- A brilliant 182% increase in DofE participants at Campsmount completing their Awards
- Another 85 marginalised young people start their potentially life changing DofE journey
- There is an inspiring increase in the enrolment for Silver Awards in the 2022/23 academic year.
Speaking on the impact of the past five years, DofE representative Phil Hulbert stated:
"I have been involved with the DofE at Campsmount for 30 years and I have seen quite a few changes during this period, but none so profound as the last five years. With Mathews & Babs' support so many more young people have been able to start a Bronze DofE Award - and many of them progressing through the levels to complete Gold.
Legacy is essential to me. For example, one particular pupil who benefitted from Rejus's investment, comes from a family who have all done their DofE. Her grandmother started her DofE at Campsmount 37 years ago! With the help of Rejus I want to continue this work and be able to show how their support has benefitted the school and the wider community around it. Thank you."
- Phil Hulbert, DofE Manager.
We’re very proud to announce that overall, our support of the DofE has resulted in 116 Bronze, 51 Silver and 22 Gold Awards being achieved since 2017.
Well done to all the students for their hard work and commitment, and we look forward to keeping you updated. If you have any questions, visit our contact page to get in touch.