To all new Bronze candidates a special welcome. We look forward to meeting you during expedition training and of course during your practice and final expeditions. As with all new ventures you will probably have lots of questions and be listening to all sorts of rumors from those who have gone before. If you have any concerns or worries at this stage please do speak to us via e-mail or telephone beforehand. We work very hard to make the whole expedition experience as safe and as fun as possible however, please be aware this is a two way process. Remember “there is no such thing as a stupid question”.

We will see you all during training and take you through the equipment you should bring along and, of course, what to wear. It’s probably worth holding back from any purchases just now as we will bring samples into school of what works and what doesn’t. It’s also likely we will have a representative from Craigdon Mountain sports who will give additional advice and importantly issue discount cards.

I’m sure your aware David Horne retired this year after 30+ years service to the D of E scheme. In that time he built up the number of Robert Gordon’s candidates from a modest handful to the largest number from a single school in Scotland. What has also been impressive is that despite the high volume, standard’s of knowledge and attitude and been maintained at the highest level. This has made our job very enjoyable and straight forward and of course, ultimately, it is you the student who benefits. Thank you David and thank you former students.

As you are probably aware Andy Prentice and Craig McEwan are now in the D of E hot seat. We look forward to working with them and continuing, with your help, the success of Robert Gordon’s D of E.