Broadway Sixth Formers and their Headteacher abseiled 150 feet and met HRH Prince Edward.
Yesterday, I was delighted to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Diamond Challenge (which celebrates 60 years since the start of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme) with our Sixth Form students – we abseiled 150 feet off the top of Birmingham Metropolitan College. We then met HRH the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward. This experience took me back many years to when I trained to become a Mountain Leader – the love of mountains and the outdoors has never left me! One of my heroes from boyhood was Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG, ONZ, KBE who was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. One of his many quotes has stayed with me:
 
‘People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things’.