The Silver Expedition, Walking with Purpose  

To complete the Silver AYP (Award For Young People) two groups of Year 12 students embarked on a 3 day walking and camping expedition in the Tai Po area on the 21-23 Feb 2019.

The teams began their hike at the Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, finishing at Sham Tseng bus station. Both teams (on separate self planned routes) scaled Tai Mo Shan, the highest peak in Hong Kong at 957 metres above sea level, and each walked more than 40km in total.

The Hong Kong AYP encourages young people to have more contact with the natural environment while practicing responsibility, commitment, leadership and collaboration. To qualify for the award, individuals also have to complete the following 3 skills for 12 months: community service, physical skill and a non-physical skill outside of school.

Leanna Spencer one of the students who completed the expedition explains more, “Cooking, first aid and navigation, taking bearings, map reading, triangulating locations, route planning, as well as physical fitness were all new challenges for the teams.”

Each group also completed a ‘purpose’ task, relating to history, the environment, teamwork, conservation, literature, or a physical skill. For example the teams photographed and described abandoned villages on the route, created a field guide of the flowers found on the route, made a video diary and monitored the levels of litter on the route.

Sign-ups are available each year for the silver AYP award, open to Year 11s who wish to complete it in Year 12.

Find out more about the award itself: http://www.ayp.org.hk/en/home.php

By: Tara Goldsworthy 12D and Leanna Spencer 12E