Top award for scouts

The achievers collected their Chief Scout’s Platinum Award at a ceremony at Lodge Hill Centre near Pulborough.

Verity Baker-Irons, 15, Connie Holland, 15, James Slater, 15, Chloe Beadell, 15, Rachel Farrant, 17, Eleanor Harwood, 16, Matthew Gobey, 16, and Jared Gobey, 16, received the honour in recognition of the skills they had shown and various activities undertaken together while achieving their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award.

Line dancing, an Italian evening and Egyptian-themed events were among some of the activities organised by individuals for their fellow Explorers.

They also carried out conservation work at St Mary’s Church in Felpham. This included clearing weeds and tidying graves.

The presentation ceremony included a talk and slide show by Peter Dawes, the area commissioner for British Scouting Overseas.

This showed the activities British scouts in other countries have carried out.