THEY have undertaken challenges from volunteer work in Ecuador to learning to scuba dive.And 31 young people - including a group from Wayland High School in Watton - will be in London today to receive the Duke of Edinburgh scheme's highest accolade, the gold award.

THEY have undertaken challenges from volunteer work in Ecuador to learning to scuba dive.

And 31 young people - including a group from Wayland High School in Watton - will be in London today to receive the Duke of Edinburgh scheme's highest accolade, the gold award.

To get the gold award, young people must successfully complete five different disciplines over a period of 18 months - the categories consist of: volunteering, skills, physical, expedition and residential.

Two teachers from Wayland Community High School, Julie Fieldhouse and Yvonne Ayden, will attend the awards ceremony as VIP guests in recognition of the many years they have been running the Duke of Edinburgh's Award programmes at the school.

Shelagh Hutson, Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Norfolk County Council, said: 'The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a challenging and rewarding scheme that the county council is very pleased to support. It allows young people to try new things, learn more about themselves and work together for their own benefit and that of their local communities. These 31 young people should be very proud of their achievements and will I'm sure have grown in confidence and learnt skills that they will be able to take with them and use throughout their lives.'

Daniel Walker, 19 and a former Wayland High School student, took up rugby coaching, supported the leaders on a bronze level expedition and camped in the Lake District as part of his gold award programme.

He said: 'I'm still carrying on with coaching junior rugby, even though I have finished my award. We had a very memorable expedition, particularly when we were wild camping and cooking opposite Helvellyn and there were clouds below us.'

The Watton gold award recipients are Hannah Bowman, Emily Creed, Lauren Healy, Kimberley Ashby, Jessica Raine, Daniel Sellers, Spencer Snowling, Lewis Wilkins, Daniel Adcock, James Walker, Daniel Walker.