A unique leadership programme developed by a Catholic secondary school in Newcastle to foster care and commitment blows apart the media myth of the ‘snowflake’ generation

St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School is an all-boys’ school in the West End of Newcastle upon Tyne. We have been educating boys since 1881 and last year we were awarded the Sunday Times North-East School of the Year.

In Year 7 our new boys arrive, wearing their burgundy blazers with pride, ready to take action. But it seemed to us as if a piece of the jigsaw was missing. Many of those boys, and some in Year 8, would ask if they could start their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. They cannot do this until Year 9, and the Pope John Paul II Award, based around Catholic Social Teaching, does not happen until the sixth form. It seemed to us that there was an opportunity to channel the enthusiasm of Key Stage 3 students into service to their community, so to fill this void we created our own age-appropriate award programme. We called it “Fortis Dux”.

The award is entirely unique to St Cuthbert’s and its design and content reflect our mission statement: “Faith. Leadership. Learning”. The award’s logo is based on an eider duck or “Cuddy duck”, as it is known in the north-east. These ducks are closely linked with the school’s patron saint, who is widely regarded as the world’s first nature conservationist, having passed laws protecting the ducks on the Farne Islands. Our strong ethos surrounding leadership is recognised in the Latin title “Fortis Dux” (strong leader), with the Latin being chosen to affirm both our Catholic heritage and our Roman roots: the vallum (a huge earthwork) of Hadrian’s Wall (as written about by St Bede) runs underneath the school’s yard. The award’s mascot, Fortis – a giant rubber duck – attends all functions relating to the award as well as the annual reward of an excursion to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne for the students who have completed the programme.