About

Banff Academy (@banffacademyBxA) has been offering the Duke of Edinburgh's award as an opportunity for young people for over 30 years.

First started by Mrs F. Webster, the award has been supported by many volunteer members of the school staff as well as local and national community volunteers over the years.

Miss A. Brown continued as leader for over a decade, after Mrs Webster's retirement.

In 2020, with restructuring of the licenced organisations in Aberdeenshire and across some other Scottish local authorities, the onus would be on schools to become centres fully responsible for the delivery of the award. Coming at such uncertain times, there was not the capacity or will to continue with the award.

However following a Gold group successfully completing their expedition in 2021, after a wait (for some) of 2 years, the benefits for young people was clear.

Banff Academy is now a Directly Licenced Centre and will continue supporting young people through their DofE award.

For further info please contact Mr S. Bappoo in school.

Volunteers

Banff Academy staff supporting the award are all volunteers, they are not remunerated for their time.

This is also the case of local community volunteers who assess participant's section. The local community volunteers for example at the Museum of Banff, at various charitable groups and at many sports and recreational clubs are invaluable for participants to achieve their award.

Many school staff are also involved assessing participants for their sections, especially for the activities they are undertaking for the sections.

For example participants would undertake Photography or Drawing Skills in their own time, often at home and our Art teacher would assess their skills development and complete an assessor report.

This is also the case with our Lifestyle teachers for Baking or Cooking skills development at home or our PE teachers for Physical activities both in school and at home, all volunteering as section assessors.

Mr S Bappoo

DofE Manager, Leader, Expedition Supervisor, Expedition Assessor

Mr S Bappoo completed his DofE Awards whilst at school. He obtained his Gold award in 2004 including a chat with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at the award ceremony in Edinburgh. Taking part in the award was a rewarding experience and he always wanted to be involved with the award when he became a teacher and has done so since. Mr Bappoo is keen on outdoor activities, including hill walking, kayaking and archery. However he firmly believes in the importance of the different sections of the award coming together to show achievement and not just the expedition section!

Mrs C Bappoo

DofE Leader, Expedition Supervisor, Expedition Assessor

Mrs C Bappoo has been involved with Girl's Brigade (GB) Scotland for over 20 years. She obtained her Gold award as well as her Queen's Award via GB. Mrs Bappoo has been hill walking including bagging munros since the age of 4 and is enthusiastic about the natural world and the outdoors. Whilst she has many volunteer roles including on the GB board, local GB company and in the local community, she still finds the time to supervise and assess DofE expeditions.

Miss C McFarlane

DofE Leader, Expedition Supervisor, Expedition Assessor

Miss C McFarlane has been involved with the Scouts for over a number of years. In addition, she has also joined the DofE team at Banff Academy to volunteer. She has completed a lot of learning and courses relating to the award - probably the most of any of the volunteer staff! Miss McFarlane likes to be outdoors and has interests in hill walking, marathon running, cycling, kayaking and water sports. She is keen on positive outcomes for kids in our area, hence her volunteering with the award at BxA.

Mr N Murray

DofE Leader, Expedition Supervisor, Expedition Assessor

Mr N Murray completed his Gold DofE Award at Banff Academy. He has been involved with the Portsoy Scout group for a long period of time and has a strong focus on outdoor activities. Mr Murray is involved in hill walking, mountaineering, mountain biking, climbing and more. As part of our PBL team with a focus on Outdoor learning Mr Murray is our resident expert on all things outdoors. He holds many nationally recognised qualifications in outdoor pursuits from Summer to Winter Mountain leader and Cycling leader.

Mrs H Hendry

DofE Award Verifier

Mrs Hendry is passionate about children having the most varied opportunities possible in the local community, working with employers and other organisations. She is also a firm believer in developing skills which the award lends itself to. She is an integral part of the award programme, granting final approval to the Awards achieved by participants. Her role is completely independent from the delivery of DofE programmes to the young people so she can act as an important, independent quality check.

Mrs F Webster

DofE Leader, Expedition Assessor

Mrs Webster has been leading DofE award delivery for over 30 years. She never seems to tire and having been "retired" for over 12 years, she is still out assessing expeditions for Banff Academy!

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