School Featured on National Stamp

A group of Dauntsey's pupils and staff have the very great, and unique, privilege of having their photograph featured on a national Bhutanese stamp.  The stamp shows a group photograph with a stunning mountain backdrop, and is worth 10 ngultrum (the Bhutanese national currency).

In December 2005, 17 pupils and three members of staff from Dauntsey's School made the history books by becoming the first ever school group to visit the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. They spent two weeks in the Land of the Thunder Dragon, exploring the country's cultural heritage and meeting local people, and on a 6-day trek in the Jumolhari mountain region. It was during the trek when the group photograph was taken: little did the English school pupils know at the time that their faces would be immortalised on the Bhutanese national stamp!

Independent travel to Bhutan is not permitted, and visitor numbers are strictly limited in order to protect the culture and environment of this special country, where "Gross National Happiness" is the key aim of the national government.

Head Master, Stewart Roberts, said:  "This is a real honour. It was a great privilege for our pupils and staff to be allowed to visit this special and remote corner of the world. We are delighted that what was such a memorable event has been commemorated by the Bhutanese people in this most significant way."

The printing of the stamp coincides with the forthcoming Dauntsey's School Expedition and Mountaineering Society's second visit to Bhutan: another group of pupils and staff are due to visit in December 2009.