Can you repair a bike puncture? These Skye kids can, thanks to the Junior Duke Awards

By Nicola Sinclair

September 25 2022, 6:00 am

Kyleakin Primary School pupils receive their Junior Duke Award from local councillor John Finlayson.

Pupils at Kyleakin Primary School on the Isle of Skye have become the first in Highland to complete the Junior Duke Awards.

The Junior Duke Awards is the brainchild of a mum and teacher who wanted her younger kids to experience some of the benefits of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

The life skills programme is now a hit at schools all over the world. And earlier this year, Kyleakin became the first in Highland to take it on.

Head teacher Elaine Finlayson says it’s a great opportunity to try something a bit different.

“I was looking for something non-academic,” says Mrs Finlayson. “We always celebrate academic and sporting achievements in school but I felt we didn’t have anything for the general population where everyone could succeed.”

Bringing learning home

The Junior Dukes offer up 10 activities, with primary school pupils asked to complete seven to get their award. Activities vary by age. For little ones, it could be learning to tie their shoelaces, whereas P7 pupils might cook their family a meal.

Kyleakin pupils learned baking, knitting, keyboard, First Aid and much more.

At Kyleakin, 25 pupils completed all 10 activities, including everything from baking and knitting to planning a journey or mastering ‘Happy Birthday’ on the keyboard.

One of the best things about the programme was the way that it reached beyond the school.

“It links home and school so it’s about sharing skills with your children, and communities sharing skills too,” says Mrs Finlayson. “We had the fire officer in Kyle come over and do fire safety with the wee ones, and a paramedic came and taught them First Aid.”

Simple tasks made the learning accessible to every pupil.

In one very popular session, a Kyleakin High School teacher shared his own skills with pupils.

“I got Greg Dobson in from the high school to show the P6s how to mend a bike puncture,” says Mrs Finlayson. “A lot of the parents said, actually, they didn’t really know how to do that either! So the kids then shared that learning at home, which was really good.”

Mrs Finlayson says the Junior Dukes were as much a hit with Kyleakin parents as they were with pupils.

Granny got involved too, in many cases helping kids with the knitting task.

“They were really positive about how excited the kids were for the challenges,” she says, adding that the learning often included the whole family. “Kids were talking about how they were doing things with their parents and how granny got involved too. They said ‘Mum can’t knit but my granny can!’

“These weren’t major, time-consuming things but they were fun. It showed them that learning is lifelong.”

Finding their own path

Kyleakin plans to run the programme every year, with support from the after-school club. Mrs Finlayson says the school is proud to be the first in Highland to complete the award, and it’s amazing to see others doing it around the world.

The awards linked up learning in school with home-based activities.

“I wish my kids did it when they were in primary school,” says Mrs Finlayson. “It’s a great opportunity for pupils to experience things that we maybe don’t put enough emphasis on in school.

“Not every child is going to be academic, not every child is going to be sporty, but there are other skills out there that we need to share with kids. It might inspire them to find their own path.”