The 24-strong group from Ken Stimpson Community School, in Werrington, Peterborough, were on a three-day expedition in Derbyshire as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, when 16-year-old Stefan Melnyczuk lost his footing and fell.

Rather than panic, the pupils put their first-aid training into action, and comforted Stefan before the ambulance arrived.

At that stage, it was unclear how severe the injury was, or if any bones were broken, but after being taken to Derby Hospital, he was found to have a badly-sprained ankle.

His parents arrived after the incident happened on Saturday, at Mill Dale, near Alstonefield, and took Stefan – who was working towards a silver award – back home, where he is recovering.

Today, the director of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme for the east region, Anne Newcombe, praised the actions of the teenagers and said a review into the accident would take place.

She said: "Any incident that happens within the award is logged.

"However, large or small, we do take them all seriously and like to review them to see if there are any future training issues, for example.

"It's great to hear that everything was carried out to the procedure. All young people, as part of their training, have emergency procedures quite high on their list.

"These things don't happen very often, but when they do, it is great to know the children have remembered what they have been taught in training and saw the leaders working with them beforehand, and that everything fell into place."

Principal of the school David McPartlin said: "The Duke of Edinburgh scheme advisor there said the pupils played it by the book.

"Parents and leaders know no one did anything wrong, and it was just unfortunate.

"Pupils managed a difficult situation extremely capably, and were described as exemplary."

The remainder of the group – which also included four members of staff – were still there on Monday and were due to return yesterday evening.

The Duke of Edinburgh Awards is a non-competitive programme of cultural and adventurous activities for young people.