Combined Cadet Force

It has been a characteristically busy term for the CCF. It has been great to have a fully integrated CCF with boys and girls and we now have a Contingent of just under 250 cadets.

After the frustrations of last year it was great to leave Sherborne for our Field Trip. Our Royal Navy section were superbly hosted by 846 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton. Our Army and Royal Marine sections deployed to Salisbury Plain and got to experience sleeping under a poncho, eating rations, and learning various fieldcraft skills. Our Fifth Form cadets are undertaking a course to prepare them for training and leadership roles and they enjoyed the opportunity to conduct blank firing. Our Fourth Form cadets passed their ‘beret tests’ just before Armistice Day, and it was a great spectacle to see the Courts lined with a perimeter of cadets and all the pupils formed up in Boarding House groups as they stood in solemn silence for the Act of Remembrance.

On Remembrance Sunday itself our Fifth and Sixth Form cadets had the honour of marching through the town with our Cadet RSM, Freddie Cole (U6g), leading the entire parade as Standard Bearer. To steal a quote that I first heard from my Colour Sergeant at Sandhurst, Freddie looked as ‘smart as a carrot.’

On a Remembrance theme, our cadets were choreographed to make a Poppy using red and black umbrellas (please see below) whilst being filmed by a drone. Whilst we as a School are pleased with the end result, especially as we had under an hour to put it together, you may be interested to learn that a number of umbrellas did not survive the shoot.

Sixteen keen cadets went on an overnight trip to a training area near Aldershot to learn about urban combat hosted by the Royal Marines Youth Training Team and selection for the wonderful Pringle Trophy and Ten Tors is underway. Next term culminates in our Biennial Inspection on Wednesday 23 March (parents will be invited) and we are privileged to have the Fleet Commander of the Royal Navy, Vice-Admiral Burns, as our Inspecting Officer. With further Field Trips being planned, adventure training in Norway, summer camp and parachuting courses there is much for our cadets to look forward to. 

Rob Le Poidevin, CCF Contingent Commander