The Brakenhale Combined Cadet Force has been parading every Tuesday with the volunteer Sergeants, Contingent Commander Michael Gildersleve and the newly recruited volunteer PI Powell. We are looking forward to more staff volunteers joining the contingent soon. In these sessions we have been readying the cadets for the CTT annual summer camp.

To support the cadet curriculum, we have been able to run an offsite event at the Ash Ranges. Eleven CCF cadets and 8 staff attended a day's training to learn weapons handling and have the opportunity to fire live rounds down the range. This was in collaboration with Reddam school, Luckley House and GLT’s newly joined John Madejski Academy. For some it was the first time, others have done this before. It was a cold and windy start which turned to driving rain, but the lessons carried on and not a single cadet moaned! They showed real resilience and toughed out the elements. In total between all cadets, 5000 rounds of ammunition were fired. Although a challenging day due to the weather it was rewarding, especially for those that passed the Weapons Handling Test and were able to shoot. All enjoyed the day (bar the weather) and took away some valuable experience from this, including the newly recruited staff Probationary Instructors!

The contingent were then able to engage with additional Weapons Handling Training with the air rifles to make them Summer Camp ready. Safety and confidence must be 100% to pass this training. Thank you to CTT for providing the training weapons.

The BCCF is ready to recruit! At the end of last half term we welcomed over 70 pupils to two insight days and so many of these pupils have shown interest in joining as a cadet this Easter as existing Year 8 and 9s, and in September for Year 7s. The sign up form has been released to all Year 8 and 9 parents and a further Year 7 email will come later in the summer term for a September start. The attendees got to explore the kit and uniform, try rations and build shelters, as well as handle the weapons safely and try command tasks (logistic problem solving tasks). The first parade for the new Year 8 and 9 recruits will be on the 1st April where we will share more details about the first Field Craft overnight stay on the school field later in April.