International students quickly feel at home with our friendly students and spacious campus. Read on to learn how we welcome international students.
The Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award is still going strong in New Zealand. Gold presentation awards are booked up well in advance with students having to wait for up to a year for their official presentations. This speaks worlds for the character and strength of our young people.
The cornerstones of the Award are self-motivation, responsibility, commitment and community-mindedness and these traits are clearly evident in the young ladies who participate in the Award at Chilton.
At all levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) participants must undertake a regular commitment in each of three sections – Service, Skills and Physical Recreation. For many of our busy Chilton girls this is an easy undertaking as they are already active in many different areas. For some this requires leaving their comfort zone and trying something completely different. In addition to the regular commitment over a set period, participants also have to undertake a practice and a qualifier expedition.
The Bronze practice expedition in 2010 took eleven girls up to Kaitoke forest. It was great to see the girls out in the forest - this is not their natural habitat and the most memorable comment of the day was “why does everything look so green?”
The 2010 Silver practice expedition saw six girls donning backpacks in the Tararuas. A climb up Gentle Annie was followed by a relatively flat stretch along the ridge allowing everyone time to catch their breath before the next real effort. They were rewarded with fantastic weather and by what must surely be one of the best views ever.
The Gold participants take responsibility for organising their own expeditions utilising the skills they have learnt in their Bronze and Silver years.
Read one Year 13’s account of their Gold qualifying expedition in 2010 below:
“During Labour weekend this year, five excited Year 12 and 13 students and one brave Physics teacher set out to do a qualifying tramp for our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award. We left early on Friday morning to do a ‘Northern Crossing’ of the Tararua range, tramping from Levin to Masterton. For us, this trip was much more than just a ‘walk’. For four days we trekked through wind, snow, mud and the unforgiving heat of the sun together. We survived a gas explosion, daunting cliff faces, faced wild beasts and safely navigated over pinnacles, rivers and the highest peak in the Tararuas. At the end, it’s safe to say, we may have felt invincible! It sure didn’t feel like it, as we faced the various challenges thougout. We learnt daily that: the map cannot be trusted where distance is concerned, you will always sink into the mud up to your ankles at least, no matter which path you take through the bog; and that tussock grass is the safest thing to be holding onto at any given time."
Brigitte Ravera, 13Cl
Read more about the programmes available at Chilton here.