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The Kirby Challenge Award was created to provide an opportunity for Year 8 pupils to challenge themselves in their final year at the Prep School. Their achievements in the Challenge Award will add into their final grade for the Wycliffe Baccalaureate and is an opportunity for pupils to develop independence, leadership skills and confidence.
It also gives pupils a chance to record and reflect upon their individual accomplishments, whilst recognising their contribution to the School and the wider community. We feel that, through the award, Wycliffe pupils can learn from their successes and sometimes even more so from their failures. We therefore encourage children to complete the award as independently as possible.
Alissa, Olivia and Bella organised the Christmas Fayre and raised over £4,000 for charity.
In previous years Year 8 have completed a range of challenges from supporting the elderly or young children in the community, to completing triathlons and horse-riding, all organised by the pupils themselves. Of course, this year, that has been much more challenging and so pupils may have taken on writing every week to an elderly relative, raising awareness of a charity of their choice or creating food parcels at Christmas time.
There are 3 distinct parts to the award:
Bronze |
Silver |
Gold |
| To attain the Bronze Award pupils make a commitment to achieving goals in all three of the sections of the award. | To attain the Silver Award pupils make a significant commitment to achieving a range of goals in all three of the sections of the award. | To attain the Gold Award pupils need to make a considerable personal commitment to achieving a wide-ranging set of goals in all three of the sections of the award. |
| Pupils show commitment to contributing to school life, family and/or to the wider community. | Pupils show a dedication to making a full contribution to school , family and/or to the wider community. | Pupils show a significant commitment to making a consistent contribution to school life, family and/or the wider community. |
| Pupils set themselves a personal goal and, with guidance, work towards its achievement. | Pupils show progress towards achieving a personal goal and mostly independently strive towards its achievement. | Pupils set themselves a plan towards achieving a personal goal and work towards its achievement, showing complete self-reliance and the use of initiative. |
| Pupils show independence, resilience and responsibility when organising their Personal Challenge. | Pupils show significant levels of independence, resilience and responsibility when organising their Personal Challenge. | Pupils show exceptional levels of independence, resilience and responsibility when organising their Personal Challenge. |
We will consider very carefully the grading of the Kirby this year due to the exceptional circumstances we have found ourselves in – we want to ensure that we acknowledge their effort, commitment and adaptability.
Possible ways that pupils could contribute to the school, family and/or the wider community:
Toby, Sam and Charlie organised non-uniform day on behalf of Pied Piper Appeal.
Toby and Alice organised an auction of promises at the Christmas Fayre
Possible challenges that pupils could set, plan or complete:
These contributions and challenges may also raise awareness of Charities which a pupil has an affiliation with. Fundraising does sometimes play a part in this, but it is more about the awareness of a charity which is important
The pupils write up the Award and what they have done within it, during the Summer Term which offers the opportunity for self-reflection and a clarity around the commitment they have made.
For my Kirby challenge I ran 10k. I followed a program for couch to 10k and I started by doing two practice 10k runs in ten weeks. My challenge was to run 10k and my target is to run it in under an hour. The first 10k took me 1 hour and 7 minutes with two stops and the second one took me 58 minutes with a 1 minute stop.
I chose to run a 10k for my Kirby Challenge because I am not a big fan of running and I struggle to run long distance. Doing this is helping my strength and my stamina.
As part of my Kirby Challenge, I planned to dribble a football 7 miles from Painswick to Wycliffe, to raise money for the Oscar Foundation. Being isolated at home, I was still determined to complete my challenge whilst observing lock-down restrictions and was inspired by other back garden challenges like Captain Tom Moore’s walk. So I chose instead to complete the distance along the track below my house. The day of the challenge was really hot and sunny, I was excited but a little nervous because my original fundraising target had doubled. I decided on the morning to double the target distance and dribble a half marathon, equalling the distance from home to school.
The Oscar Foundation is a charity which uses football as motivation to deliver education and life skills sessions to disadvantaged children in India. I was really impressed that the foundation also encouraged girls be educated, play football and become role models within their communities. I raised over £400 for the charity.
For their Prep School Kirby Challenge, Amelia and Millie had one goal – to put smile on people’s faces at Christmas (2020). By completing a 12-hour car wash, a 12-hour tennis marathon, a 16-mile cycle ride, and a 10-mile walk they raised £1,200.
Using the funds, the girls bought gifts for cancer patients, elderly people, homelessness causes, families in crisis. They also wrote 120 letters to each present recipient. Included in the gifts were children’s clothes for Gloucestershire Bundles which supports families in crisis, 100 selection boxes to Gloucester Feed The Hungry, 40 Happiness Hampers for the Gloucester charity Charlie’s Community Support and Therapy Centre. Residents at Chestnut Court, a care home in Quedgeley, also received 60 gifts and handwritten letters.
For my “Kirby Challenge Award” I set myself a series of both physical and personal contribution challenges:
1) During the last summer holiday age 12 I successfully climbed the 3 Peaks (Ben Nevis, Scarfell and Snowden) which was a really fun and demanding personal achievement.
2) During Spring Term 2020 I gave up every Friday games session to volunteer in Lower Prep. I enjoyed helping the younger children out with spelling, reading and games and generally acting as a Year 8 mentor.
3) As the final part of my Challenge I had planned to swim 15km by taking part in the 2020 MySwimathon. Unfortunately due to Coronavirus I was unable to carry this out as planned on 20-21 March.
I still really wanted to complete my Kirby Challenge and continue raising money for my charities (Marie Curie and Cancer Research) so I changed my third challenge to an even more demanding one! I cycled and ran the 874 miles (1,407km) from Land’s End to John 0’Groats between 20 April 2020 and the end of our Summer Term. I raised over £1,400 in total.
