At St Gregory's Catholic Primary School, we already have a big focus on inspiring children to challenge themselves and others, while encouraging them to use a range of learning skills to help strengthen their character. In order to build on our work in this area, from September 2021, St Gregory's will be offering the  Junior Duke awards to all of our Key Stage 2 children.

The Junior Duke Award gives children the opportunity to participate in a variety of new experiences. They teach children that it is good to 'have a go' and challenge them to learn new and varied skills from an early age. By enrolling in the award scheme, children will learn that you may not always succeed first time and that is okay. This helps them to develop the resilience they will need throughout their lives.  The Dukes Award schemes provide the children with the opportunity to gain a recognised qualification from successfully completing each step of the award.

There are four levels:   Bronze Junior Duke, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  Each of these levels has ten challenges and, in order to complete a level, the children need to finish seven of these successfully.  These include skills such as First Aid, ICT, Languages, Art, Drama, Music, Sport and other life skills such as cookery and puncture repair.  The children will be given many of the necessary skills in school, but most of the challenges will require some time and effort outside school or at home.   

On entering the award scheme, each child will receive a Junior Duke booklet, with all the challenges explained fully. They then chooses seven out of the ten challenges in each of the booklets. There are many spaces for you to glue photographs of your child completing the challenges.