Students from Whitworth Community High School complete citizen service course

Photo: Liz Henson Photography

Chris Heath, Cole Proctor, Georgia Fish and Daniel Heath

Six students from Whitworth Community High School spent three weeks of the holidays completing a National Citizen Service course.

On the first week they went on a residential in Snowdonia and experienced outdoor pursuits including canoeing, gorge walking and hiking.

The second week saw them at the University of Central Lancashire where they got to focus on different skills like photography.

The third week was based at Pleckgate High School in Blackburn when they undertook charity work.

Daniel Heath, 16, said: “I was working on a project for the Carers’ Service in Blackburn with Darwen and I talked to the people involved with the charity and worked on a campaign to raise awareness of the charity and what it does.”

Daniel wants to be a barrister and is now doing A levels at Rochdale Sixth Form College.

He said: “Because we were thrown into an environment we were not familiar with, you had to learn to be independent and learn to get along with different people. The experience was really good.”

Cole Proctor, 16, said: “My team was supporting The Wish Centre based in Blackburn, which helps families who had suffered domestic abuse and we set up different sports to help the children feel better.”

For Cole it also built his confidence, improved his social skills and helped him to be able to talk to new people. He wants to become a criminal psychologist.

The teams all did a ‘Dragons’ Den-style pitch to secure money for their chosen charity.

Chris Heath, 16, said: “Taking part in the course has helped to build my confidence and helped me to interact with others.”

Georgia Fish, 16, wants to study biochemistry and is now at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School completing A levels.

She said: “The course raised my confidence levels.”

Blackburn-based The Challenge Project ran the course, which gave students in Year 11 and those aged up to 17 a variety of experiences.