Ten Tors - 2008

Over the past three months students from Paignton Community and Sports College have been training hard in preparation for the Ten Tors event that takes place over 10th -11th May 2008 from Okehampton.

The training for Ten Tors has been undertaken by Torbay Youth Service in Partnership with Paignton Community and Sports College to provide an audacious training programme to help the young people learn all the skills necessary for the mammoth trek across Dartmoor.

The training programme has included navigation, map skills, survival on Dartmoor, What to do in an emergency, Stamina and fitness training, and of course plenty of walking on the moor to put their skills to the ultimate test of Dartmoor!

The Young people have shown an enormous amount of commitment to the training programme and are now set for the main event this weekend.

The squad (Daniel Page, Jordan Harlock, Aaron Parsons, Sian Llewellyn, Stuart Lee, Ryan Dicks and Christopher Farrell) will all start their trek at 0700h on the Saturday at Okehampton Military Camp on the northern edge of Dartmoor where they have 34 hours to visit each of the ten tors on their route in the correct order.

The team of 6 young people aged 14 - 15 comprise of a team leader and a main navigator and they have to be self sufficient for their time on the moor where each member has to carry their team equipment and provisions for the duration of their journey. The event has become that popular that there is now a restriction of 2,400 individuals for each year.

Karl Timmins from the Torbay Youth Service said “This has been a fantastic piece of partnership work with Paignton Community and Sports College. The young people have been so committed and we have seen their skills develop over the last few months enormously.”

“The young people who take part in Ten Tors have the chance to focus their attention on finding out how they can reach their goals by working with others as a team. We see this as an important part of a young person's personal development and have been totally blown over by the commitment and determination shown by all involved." he said.

This is not the end of these students' aspirations. All the young people now wish to go on to complete there Duke of Edinburgh's Award later this year.

"The response from the young people to the training and assessments we have undertaken has been really positive and we are pleased to be able to give them even greater opportunities to go on in completing all the sections of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

Principal of the College, Jane English said “Being at the start of the Ten Tors Expedition with a College team on Saturday morning is always an important event in my diary. I think Ten Tors is a wonderful experience for young people and is a highly valued activity in the College and Torbay Youth Service. The amount of time and effort our pupils and staff have put into preparing for the event is greatly appreciated. I look forward to tracking their progress on website over the 2 days and know they will be a credit to the College.”

Anyone wanting to find out more about the Duke of Edinburgh's Award in your area should contact Torbay Youth Service on 01803 208221 or visit http://www.torbay.gov.uk/youthservice