A GROUP of Year 9 students from Coonamble High School (CHS) are set to journey into uncharted territory as the school's first ever participants in the globally-recognised Duke of Edinburgh Award.

At least 15 students have signed up to be a part of a NSW government pilot which will be used to inform how the Duke of Ed program can be rolled out in remote communities and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths.

The idea has been almost a year in the making after initially being suggested by school social worker Emma Coleman.

Mrs Coleman said she was motivated to suggest joining the program after seeing its success in a lot of urban-based schools.

"I've seen it run in so many boarding schools and that it can make the difference for some kids when they're going for university and work opportunities. I realised that even though we might not be able to send them on $20 million journeys, kids in remote communities could get just as much out of it."

"(Unfortunately), COVID slowed us right down because I couldn't do the necessary training until November/December last year.

"We then had to go through a program to get the kids signed up. We had any interested kids put their hands up in Term 1 then throughout Term 2, we did all the signing up which involved meeting with each child and developing their plan."

While there is a registration fee to do the Award, the CHS students have been sponsored by the Coonamble and District Education Foundation so they can take part free of charge.

The Office of Sport is the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award licence holder for NSW. An Office of Sport spokesperson said participants in the program typically get a lot out of it.

"The Duke of Ed is the world’s leading fully inclusive youth development program for young people aged 14-24," the spokesperson said.

"The Duke of Ed helps young people to develop skills and build resilience for their future personal and professional lives.

"Achieving an Award recognises individual goal setting and self-improvement through persistence and achievement."

The spokesperson said CHS first registered to become an Award Centre in December 2021 following conversations with Office of Sport and Orange City Council staff while they were passing through the area.

"The Office of Sport saw this as a great opportunity to create a pilot at Coonamble for how the Award can be delivered in remote areas and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people," they said.

CHS student Dekoda Jackson with social worker Emma Coleman. PHOTO SUPPLIED.

The Award has three levels, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and four sections: Physical Recreation, Skill, Voluntary Service and Adventurous Journey. As Year 9 students, the CHS students will be going for their Bronze level.

Mrs Coleman said the students pick one of the sections as a major and spend at least an hour each week out of their personal time to dedicate to the Award sections, six months for their major and three months for the others.

She said seven teachers, plus herself as the overall supervisor, have also volunteered as assessors to oversee the 15 students who signed up, with a possibility of two more students.

"The big push is that they are doing it for themselves. We support them the whole way through but it is still entirely self-driven to go out into the community and empower themselves," she said.

"Each staff member has been allocated approximately two students each so that they can develop really concrete relationships with these kids."

Principal Stewart Vidler said he was excited to see the school become an Award Centre.

"It's a really good addition to our school and what it means in terms of what we can offer kids. I think there's something really special about being challenged to learn new skills," Mr Vidler said.

"I think Year 9 is just the right time to take it on. They're different kids, they've got different interests and different friendship groups, but that this will be something that they'll look back on for the rest of their lives."

Student Patrick Forbes with Jason French and Tracy Woods from the Office of Sport. PHOTO SUPPLIED.

The registered students also recently met with Office of Sport representatives Jason French and Tracy Woods, who will be the local Field Officer for the Duke of Ed program, when they paid a visit to the school on Tuesday 21 June to talk about the program and the students' expectations.

Ms Woods said, based on initial discussions with Mrs Coleman, she would have been happy with five to 10 students signing up, so to see at least 15 put their hands up for the pilot was "unheard of".

"I believe there's only 32 kids in the whole of Year 9, so that's nearly 50 per cent choosing to sign up of their own free will is really positive," Ms Woods said.

"Some of the kids I met were shy, and some not so much, but they all seemed eager to hear what we were talking about and participated in the get to know you activities.

"I'm also really excited with the range of activities selected. There’s some we probably have not even thought of before but would definitely meet the criteria."

Some of the skills the students will be developing over the next half year range from horse liberty, to learning Bulgarian, to dog welfare.

Mrs Coleman said the registered students are now logging their weekly hours and activities and will regularly check-in with their assessors over the new term.

She said they were also in the early stages of planning their Adventurous Journey, hoping to have a guided visit to Warrumbungles for a practice by the end of Term 3, before going for their qualifier in Term 4.