Over the summer holidays Young Observer will be featuring highlights of the school year in our Year in Review series. In September CedarBridge Academy will be celebrating their 20th anniversary.

Thrilled to receive royal visit

The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, visited CedarBridge Academy on Friday, March 3 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Bermuda.

He was accompanied by Governor John Rankin to greet the students and, more specifically, commemorate the CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute Duke of Edinburgh participants present.

Prince Edward was in high spirits during his visit; he presented awards, took pictures with students and unveiled a plaque which marked his visit to the school.

Mrs Melanie Burrows and Mr Christopher Swan both received awards for their participation with the Duke of Edinburgh programme from the Prince.

Mrs Burrows has travelled to 11 Caribbean countries as well as Canada. Mr Swan has also travelled multiple times overseas to countries such as St Lucia, Jamaica and Guyana to assist the students with the expeditions to receive their bronze, silver and gold awards.

They were thanked for their 20-plus years of dedicated service to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award recognises adolescents for completing a series of self-improvement exercises. Participants select and set objectives in areas such as volunteering, physical, practical skills, and expedition. Awards can be received at bronze, silver and gold levels, which are internationally recognised as an outstanding achievement.

The Earl of Wessex has assumed many duties from his father, who has reduced some of his commitments due to his age.

One of these duties includes the Duke of Edinburgh’s programme, and Prince Edward now attends Gold Award ceremonies all over the world.

To receive the Gold

Medal, students’ expeditions must last for four days and three nights and take place in “wild country”.

Gold level is the highest, most esteemed award within the Duke of Edinburgh programme. The Earl of Wessex thanked every volunteer and person who participated, and said what a great pleasure it was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Bermuda.

Building for the future as sheds steal the show

CedarBridge Academy students worked assiduously on building two garden sheds for The Kids in Construction Building Competition, sponsored by the Construction Association of Bermuda, that took place on February 25.

The sheds were designed and constructed in CedarBridge’s carpentry workshop and physics classroom.

Mr Hosang Clarke and Mr Neville Zuill hand-picked

talented students from their classes, while additional assistance came from student volunteers.

Students Seth Gibbons, Brandon Wilson, Stephen Davis, Christopher Pacheco, Nicholas Fletcher, Nitara Bento and Liliana Moniz were supervised by Mr Hosang Clarke.

They worked as a team for long hours to design and build Cool Shed, while Rodrigo Guerreiro, Zyun Smith, Jaire Lawrence, Eric Wallace, Zorico Gilbert, Masiah Bean Brown, Malachai Butterfield and Ethan Fubler designed and masterfully constructed The Shedibles.

Finding time to design and construct the sheds outside of classes and other extracurricular activities was challenging for the young students, but each of them were dedicated to use their leisure time and making the sheds a priority. Even though the students had a stringent timeframe, they managed to meet the deadline. The students sacrificed their weekends, school break and even stayed at school as late as 12.30am on a few occasions to finish their projects.

The unveiling of all the entries took place on Friday, February 24 at the Washington Mall and was on display until March 2.

The sheds were auctioned off on the Construction Association of Bermuda Facebook page. Private bidding took place on the grounds of The Washington Mall.

The students’ and teachers’ hard work and dedication paid off because CedarBridge’s entries received the overall first place in the competition as well as copping six out of seven other category awards.

Cool Shed was auctioned for $1,300 which was the highest bid on all sheds.

Additionally, it won first place for the competition and the award for the best business plan for a garden shed.

Shedibles won the most awards for a garden shed. It won the most Bermuda-centric award, the most creative design, the best use of recycled material, the Aecon Outstanding Achievement Award for completing and displaying the project first.

United Nations visit CedarBridge students attended The United Nations International School Conference hosted at the United Nations, New York. This year the conference theme was “Migration — Crossing the Line.”

Class of 2017

The graduating class of 2017.

Community service Students assisting with the Special Olympic Games at the National Stadium.

What a performance

CedarBridge band performs at The 2017 Bermuda Agricultural Show.

Walking tall Teachers and students took part in the BUT 5k walk.

Careers advice

Student Tanya Simmons organised a vocational trade fair.

School athletes The Carifta team.