In June and July of 2018, six students from Bladon House School took on the challenge of the Duke of Edinburgh practice and assessed expeditions in order to complete their Bronze awards. The practice expedition consisted of two days of walking in the National Forest with an overnight camp at Beehive farm Lake. The two days practice expedition was interspersed with teaching the students about first aid and camp cooking with all those involved, navigating the route using a route card. At the campsite, students erected their own tents and cooked their own meals while also enjoying an open fire and various activities such as archery, football and nerf ball.

After a two week break, all six students then took part in the assessed expedition around the Shirley and Osmaston areas of the Derbyshire Dales. The assessed expedition followed the same two day format of the practice expedition, but this time the students were being scrutinised by an external Duke of Edinburgh Award assessor. The walking route for the assessed expedition was 14 miles of challenging terrain with the students navigating independently using a route card and demonstrating the teamwork they had earned over the past year of activities. The students had another night of camping to conquer with the assessor casting a watchful eye on how they put up their tents and prepared their meals.
Just before the end of the walk, the assessor sat the group down to give them the good news that all had passed the expedition phase and that he was very impressed by their efforts over the past two days. All six students had performed admirably and were successful in completing Duke of Edinburgh Bronze awards