Crawley College students step into Buckingham Palace for DofE Gold honours 

Two Crawley College students received a glimpse of royal life when they received their Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Gold Awards at Buckingham Palace last month.

Arden Flint, an aeronautical engineering student, and Kyle Scutt, a culinary skills student, both travelled to London for a special celebration, hosted by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

To achieve a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, people must complete five sections of the programme, including volunteering, physical, skills, an expedition, and a residential trip.

Arden began his DofE award journey with a bronze award when he was 14 years old, with his scout group, he revealed:

“To begin with it was something that everyone did at my scout group, it was just the beginning. From then on, I just really enjoyed my bronze expedition, and doing my skills and physical and volunteering, so I continued onto silver, which was a harder form of what I had done already. I then did gold, which was the most challenging, but most thrilling.

“It was really nice at the palace, there were so many architectural structures to look at. There were stands, and different celebrity speakers, who I believe are ambassadors for the organisation, there were also events, and a tearoom to go into

“It was a relief to finally get my award. It had been something I’d waited for, as there had been a couple of mishaps along the way, but it was a surreal experience to finally get it after all the hard work had put in.”

For Kyle’s DofE Award, he supported numerous projects to complete the different sections. He added:

“I did twelve months of volunteering, which I did with Jubylee Bakes. I also did six months of the skills section, which was with the Manor Green Community Choir, who sing and sign in Makaton (sign language).

“It was really good, I got to meet Prince Edward, which was brilliant!

“My favourite bit of the day was walking around the big garden at the palace; I particularly liked the big pond and the flowers.”