This year has seen eight of WWESU’s older Explorers and recent leavers achieving their Queen’s Scout Award, the highest youth award in Scouting. Last Sunday seven of us headed to Windsor Castle for the annual ‘Day of Celebration and Achievement’, to which all new Queen’s Scouts are invited.

Dressed in our finest Scout uniform, we spent the morning brushing up on our marching skills. The sweltering heat (for which full uniform is definitely NOT designed) saw us frequently applying suncream and scuttling into areas of shade at every opportunity (okay, this was mostly Megan).

After a break for lunch, we lined up in our groups. The sound of the Scout Band playing the Star Wars theme music accompanied us as we marched through to the Castle Quad (part of the private bit of the castle), where we were even allowed to stand on the grass! Very exciting.

Princess Beatrice then arrived to conduct the review of the parade, accompanied by Chief Scout Bear Grylls. A soundtrack of Coldplay, Adele, and Disney music was provided by the two impressive bands. Soon it was time to head off again, marching to St George’s Chapel for the service – with our very own SPL Leah getting to sit next to Princess Beatrice! We were honoured to hear a speech from guest speaker Ahmad Alhendawi, the youngest-ever Secretary General of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement. On leaving the chapel we were also impressed to discover that we were walking over the buried remains of King Henry VIII, along with various other royals.

After this, it was time for one last address from Bear Grylls, before we marched back along streets lined with cheering families and confused tourists.

Overall, it was a really special day that we’ll certainly remember for a long time. Congratulations to all the new Queen’s Scouts – it was great to see your achievements being celebrated.