Each level of the Junior Duke Award offers a carefully curated set of challenges that cover a broad range of skill areas, helping children to develop both practical abilities and higher-order thinking skills. Activities include:

• Self-Sufficiency and Life Skills: Cooking a meal, tying a tie, sewing on a button, washing up properly, or making a bed. These tasks encourage independence and responsibility.
  
  
• Problem-Solving and Creativity: Building a model, designing a game, or creating a piece of art using recycled materials. These activities develop critical thinking and creative fluency, key HPL cognitive skills.
  
  
• Resilience and Perseverance: Learning to ride a bike, completing a fitness challenge, or hiking a certain distance. These tasks teach children to embrace struggle and develop self-motivation.
  
  
• Communication and Leadership: Giving a speech, teaching someone a new skill, writing a letter, or presenting a project. These challenges enhance effective communication, collaboration, and self-confidence.
  
  
• Citizenship and Community Awareness: Helping with household chores, raising money for charity, volunteering in the local community, or learning basic first aid. These tasks build empathy, social responsibility, and a global outlook—all key attributes in High-Performance Learning.
  
  
• Cultural and Linguistic Awareness: Learning basic phrases in another language, reading a book by an international author, or researching another country’s traditions. These activities broaden pupils’ perspectives and encourage open-mindedness.
• Outdoor and Survival Skills: Reading a map, tying knots, putting up a tent, or making a weather diary. These activities develop practical knowledge while fostering a sense of adventure and curiosity.

Through these diverse challenges, children are not just acquiring practical skills—they are developing the cognitive skills and learning habits that define high performers. The Junior Duke Award supports HPL thinking skills such as logical reasoning, creativity, and self-regulation, while also building character traits such as resilience, perseverance, and adaptability. These qualities help children develop a "can-do" attitude, enabling them to approach learning and life’s challenges with confidence.

As pupils progress through the Junior Duke Award levels, they earn badges and certificates to celebrate their achievements, reinforcing their sense of accomplishment. More importantly, they develop a lifelong love of learning, as well as the confidence to tackle new experiences with enthusiasm.

The Junior Duke Award is more than just an extracurricular program — it’s a valuable stepping stone in shaping independent, self-motivated learners who are prepared for the challenges of secondary school and beyond. We are proud to offer this opportunity at Hartland International School and look forward to supporting our pupils as they embrace this exciting journey of self-discovery and personal growth!