What is the purpose of the Junior Challenge?

The aim of the Junior Challenge is to bring children together over the course of a year so that they connect and support their local community, learn new skills and take part in physical activities to keep their minds and bodies healthy. At the end of the academic year, children will complete their challenge by taking part in an expedition.

The Junior Challenge is inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Bronze, Silver and Gold Award

There are three different awards that children participate in.

• Bronze Award – Begins in year 4
• Silver Award – Begins in year 5
• Gold Award – Begins in year 6

Voluntary Section

Typically, children will take part in the Bronze Award when they are in Year 4. This is an introduction to the Junior Challenge, and children are expected to commit six hours to this section. In the past, children have participated in litter picking, have read with a younger sibling, have helped a neighbour move and in one case ran a 5K run for charity. This is similar to the Silver award, however, here we expect the children to commit eight hours of voluntary work. For the Gold Award, we ask the children to dig a little deeper and go above and beyond with their voluntary work. Thinking carefully of the needs of the local community and the environment.

Skills Section

For this section of the Junior Challenge we require the children to learn a brand-new skill. Here we encourage children to take on a fresh challenge and perhaps come out of their comfort zone to learn something completely new. In the past, children have learnt to play a new musical instrument, have developed their creative skills with sewing, knitting and photography, whilst others challenged themselves in different ways and learnt first aid skills.

Physical Section

For the last section, the children are actively encouraged to get physical. As this occurs in the Summer Term we are enthusiastic about the children being outdoors as much as possible. Whether this is playing in a local football team, joining a skipping club or taking part in some long distance running. This helps to support their physical health.

The Walkathon

In the Summer Term, we ask the children to participate in a sponsored Walkathon. Here, we ask the children to collect sponsors to raise money for a charity.

• Bronze – Trussel Trust
• Silver – SHOC
• Gold – Riding for the Disabled (RDA)

For one morning, we ask the children to walk around the perimeter of the playground to see how many laps they can accomplish. We also run tuck shop for all the children in the school to come and purchase a drink or snack.

Last academic year (23/24) the children raised:

• Bronze: Trussel Trust - £2336.70
• Silver: SHOC- £666.10
• Gold:  Riding for the Disabled (RDA) - £555.16

The Hike

At the end of the Junior Challenge we take the children on a hike. Those taking the Bronze award participate in a 5km hike around Black Park, whilst the Silver award take a 10km hike around Burnham Beeches. Our Gold award participants are challenged with a 15km walk in Henley. This is a lovely opportunity for children and parents (if they wish) to come together and get active.

Celebrations

At the end of the year, we hold a BBQ for Bronze participants and a BBQ and sleepover for the Silver participants to celebrate their amazing accomplishments over the year. 

Looking Ahead

We are excited to see what the children will achieve over the coming year.