South Africa expedition for winning cadet

A cadet from Sherbourne School CCF has won a national award that will see him packing his bags for South Africa.

William Bond was nominated for the annual CVQO Westminster Award and was chosen as one of just 11 winners after a challenging selection weekend in Somerset.

He can now look forward to two weeks on the educational expedition where he will learn about local culture, engage with Zulus, take part in a community project and learn about the natural environment.

The CVQO are national training providers and the annual competition aims to seek out and reward the best of their learners, looking for attributes such as selflessness, community spirit and altruism.

Guy Horridge, Chief Executive, said: “The CVQO Westminster Award exists to recognise and celebrate those young people who have gone the extra mile to help someone in need, demonstrated community spirit or shown resolve and determination to overcome a personal challenge.

“Our winners this year really are an amazing group of young people. We found it incredibly difficult to separate them, so much so that we had to put an 11th finalist through! We look forward to meeting them all at the House of Lords next month.”

The selection weekend in Somerset included a series of command tasks, a mock barn build and a theory-based strategy exercise, as well as a number of interviews.