At Brightside, we are now incredibly proud to offer all of our students the opportunity to take part in the Junior Duke Award; a life skills award that helps children build confidence, resilience and independence. Each level of the Award pushes them to develop practical skills that have a huge positive impact on their lives.

This incredible award scheme is now running in 50 countries! Our idea in adapting this is to create something that would help to develop independence, while giving all pupils an equal opportunity to achieve success beyond academic or sporting abilities.

The Junior Duke Award has been designed to be inclusive. Every student, whatever their background, will benefit from the confidence and competence that the challenges develop.

Whilst high academic achievers may take on the Award to push their knowledge and skill base even further, pupils with more practical strengths love that the Award provides a different challenge to normal school academia. It’s special to watch how motivated all the children are to get stuck in and cheer each other on.

The Junior Duke Award has also been designed to be as accessible as possible for teachers. We all know that the curriculum is already packed to the brim. All resources and training are provided to you, meaning it can be implemented without adding hours of additional work to teachers’ already-busy schedules.

Challenges

To complete any level of the Junior Duke, each child must complete a selection of the challenges from the correct level.

Once a child completes their selected tasks, he or she should be rewarded with their badge, and ‘House Points’ (if you have a House system) at the next possible assembly. This public celebration gives children their moment of glory and encourages other children to complete their challenges even faster!

The final level in the primary school is the hardest to complete so we encourage schools to recognise those who complete the Award with a special event where your school Ambassador can present the certificates.

An Ambassador is not necessary but it is an amazing opportunity to link with the community and to invite a guest into school. The list of Ambassadors linked to schools is impressive with; professional sports people, adventurers, musicians, authors, philanthropists, patrons, sponsors etc. You can find out more about the original ‘Ambassador’, Gordon Bulloch, in the Friends of the Junior Duke page.

Information for Parents

Junior Duke - information for parents.pptx

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