The Duke of Edinburgh's Legacy

Over the years, many hundreds of the eight million young people from across the UK and Commonwealth, who have taken part in the DoE scheme that challenges them to volunteer in their local community, learn new skills and undertake expeditions, have done so at LEH.

Head Mistress Heather Hanbury, who is a beneficiary of the scheme herself, paid tribute this week to the Prince’s lasting legacy, saying: “We’ve all gained a great deal in schools throughout the country thanks to the initiative that Prince Philip introduced in the 1950s. LEH has one of the largest DoE in-house contingencies in the UK and we’re really very proud of that.  The scheme has provided wonderful opportunities for many of our young people to gain experiences well beyond those they would normally have had in school.”

This year alone, there are 214 pupils undertaking their Bronze, Silver and Gold DoE awards, and over the years many hundreds of students have benefitted.  One such is 20-year-old Georgie Horwich, Class of 2019, who was featured in last week’s Channel 4 documentary about Prince Philip.

The Real Prince Philip: A Royal Officer is still available to view on the C4 player for another 26 days. In it Georgie talks about how she used the skills she learnt during the DoE Awards to overcome a potentially life-threatening injury.

She recalls: “I was horse riding and I got chucked off a horse and landed slightly awkwardly and damaged the lower part of my spine which caused me to be in excruciating pain all the time. And then by the end of it, I wasn’t walking.”

The lessons she had learnt from her DoE experiences helped Georgie through 12 weeks of hospital treatment. “People do approach challenges differently once they’ve done DoE,” she tells the documentary.  “They come back and they think this is hard, but I’ve done something harder, so I can just push through this.” Georgie recovered and went on to complete her Gold DoE before going on to university.

We are incredibly proud of her and all LEH pupils who undertake their DoE Awards.