CCF (Combined Cadet Force)
The CCF uses a military-style ethos to develop and foster qualities of confidence, good character, integrity, responsibility, teamwork, moral courage, and physical and mental determination through a variety of activities. CCF is compulsory for all students in Year 10, during which time cadets complete the Army Proficiency Certificate – which consists of learning a variety of skills both of a military nature and general outdoor skills such as map reading. Year 10 cadets also complete the expedition section of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award during their time in the CCF.
From Year 11, cadets begin to develop their leadership potential, and begin working their way through the cadet rank structure. The top cadets are invited to develop their leadership qualities even further through the Cadet Leadership Course. Opportunities are also available to attend various courses run through the MOD for cadets.
Currently, the CCF only consists of an Army Section.
The Officer Commanding the CCF is Captain G R Yates, ex Coldstream Guards. He is assisted by a group of officers drawn from the school teaching staff, most of whom have a background in cadets having been either CCF, ACF or ATC cadets themselves, and all of whom have a background in Outdoor Pursuits. The CCF is also assisted by regular visits from a Cadet Training Team, made up of Senior NCOs from the regular army.
Training takes place on a weekly basis every Monday afternoon after lessons. Each term the CCF goes away on an overnight exercise – in the past few years we have trained on Salisbury Plain, Scraesdon Fort, Dartmoor and Penhale. The members of staff work hard to ensure the exercises are challenging, safe and rewarding. We also attend annual summer camps during the last week of the Summer term – these are voluntary and are always very popular. In recent years we have attend Penhale, Nescliffe and RAF St Mawgan for annual camp.
For camp reports from 2009 and 2011, please see below. Unfortunately, the CCF was unable to attend annual camp in 2010.
CCF Annual Camp
2011 - RAF St Mawgan
This year’s annual camp saw 86 cadets, four officers (GRY, LJWM, LCD and TEC), and an OB in the shape of Trevor Henderson (one time Head of Corps, now in the Coldstream Guards) departing for RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall for a five day stint of military and adventurous training activities. After a slightly inauspicious start when one of the coaches broke down, and the advance party’s sat nav took them on a guided tour of North Cornwall, we arrived at RAF St Mawgan, where we immediately set about getting settled into accommodation blocks, and introduced the year 9s to the complexities of making beds in the approved military manner, marching to meals, and all the other delights of camp life. The rest of the camp ran a little like this:
Day One: Contingent Exercise – the day is spent in patrol harbours in hedges trying to avoid heatstroke, along with learning and practising patrol skills and Section Attacks.
Day Two: Military Skills day – today is spent in military training activities with the cadet training team, involving more section attacks, ambush drills and some other stands. Another blisteringly hot day.
Day Three: Capt Yates decides that ‘sports day’ could be better spent in an alternative location, namely, Fistral Beach. This looks like a bad choice when we are woken at 6am by torrential rain. Nonetheless, the contingent votes en masse for the beach anyway, so off we go. Fortunately, the weather clears, and AUO Doak is able to impress all with her surfing skills. AUO Candler organises a softball game which appears to involve everyone on the beach.
Day Four: Today is ‘lake day’, and we all head off to St Stithian’s Lake for Kayaking, raft building, canoeing, and the ubiquitous volleyball. The day was unfortunately called off slightly early due to the onset of high winds, followed by absolutely torrential rain. The coaches leave without Lt Wynell-Mayow in the panel van, who has no idea how to get back to camp, and spends some time following vague sat nav directions around Cornwall in heavy rain and zero visibility. His temper is not greatly improved on return to St Mawgan, where the gate guard tries to refuse him entry due to lack of military ID.
Day five – Home. After what feels like considerably longer than six days, we tidy up the accommodation, and load up the coaches for return to Blundell’s. Capt Yates is not too impressed with the contingent accruing a £60 damage bill for a broken shower rail in the boy’s block, but cheers up when informed by the camp admin staff that the Parachute Regiment who were in camp the week before left with a damage bill in six figures. Fortunately, the problems with buses and navigation that plagued us on the way down did not reoccur, and everyone was delighted to be home just in time for Sports Day!
I am sure the Contingent would wish to thank all the Officers and NCOs who worked very hard to make the week enjoyable, particularly the CO, Capt Yates, and to Trevor Henderson, whose assistance during the week was invaluable.
2009 – Nescliffe
In a break from tradition, this year rather than taking a voluntary group of around 50 cadets away to camp on the first week of the Summer Holidays, camp was made compulsory for all Year 9s, and held in the final week of the term. As a result, on the morning of Saturday June 27th a motley collection of 96 NCOs and cadets, and seven Instructors (Maj Chapman, WO2 Yates, Lt Wilks, 2Lts West and Wynell-Mayow, and AUOs Birkett and Squibs) found themselves bound for Shropshire and a week of mud, sweat and army catering. Four hours of coach journey later, the contingent arrived on the parade square at Nescliffe Training Camp, and aside from the initial groans of dismay that inevitably emerge from those new to cadet camp accommodation, the contingent soon settled themselves into their billets with minimum confusion.
The first day dawned early, particularly for those in the male accommodation blocks, who were woken at 4.30am by the screams of those who had risen early and discovered that the showers were ice cold. After an early breakfast, the contingent hit the ground running with the busiest day of the camp – the Military Skills day, which comprised of eight different stands designed to test cadets on their military skills. These stands were: A Command Task (not involving Shark Infested Custard for a change), shooting on the 25m range, the obstacle course, shooting in the DCCT (Dismounted Close Combat Trainer, a room with weapons hooked up to a big computer screen), a vehicle ambush (which involved driving around the training areas in Land Rovers) a casualty evacuation, an ammunition resupply exercise and a military knowledge stand. This was a huge amount of activity to start the camp, and we were particularly pleased when the organising staff told us that the contingent was the most enthusiastic and energetic group that they had seen that week. We were, admittedly, the first contingent to do the stands that week, but we felt nonetheless a certain sense of achievement. To round off the day perfectly, WO2 Yates had managed to rectify the absence of hot water, and a substantially more cheerful (and cleaner) contingent assembled for dinner than had appeared for breakfast.
The second day was rather more relaxed, and was spent at a nearby lake kayaking, canoeing, playing volleyball, and walking around the lake. Particular mention at this point has to go to WO2 Yates and Lt Wilks, who ran the volleyball stand, and appeared to play volleyball solidly for what must have approached 7 hours.
After a day of relaxing by the lake, we assembled again on the parade square for a navigation exercise, and were greeted by a Cadet Training Team officer, who pointed at what appeared to be the only hill in Shropshire, and cheerfully told us that we would be climbing it. Undeterred (Devon, after all, having somewhat more to offer in terms of hills), the groups set off, and in most cases, had to slow down as they were tackling the slopes at such speed they were getting ahead of the checkpoint timings. The course was broken in the middle with a lecture on deer by a local land owner.
That evening, we set out on our overnight exercise. This was an exciting time for a great many of the contingent, as due to various complications over the course of the year, several of the Year 10 cadets had not been out on a proper exercise before either, so there was a great deal to look forward to. The exercise went perfectly to plan, with some excellent ambushes and platoon attacks, and everyone had an excellent time firing off as many blank rounds as they could lay hands on – particularly SSgt Prior, who had been issued a fully automatic Light Support Weapon, and must have succeeded in firing off several hundred rounds over the course of the night, an experience he may have rued when it came to cleaning the weapons later! The exercise concluded with a room clearing exercise, and finally, surprise birthday cakes for Flora Shadbolt and Jess Grandfield, who were fortunate/unfortunate enough to have their birthdays whilst on camp.
Although the first time in many years that Blundell’s CCF has taken a contingent of this size away, this year’s camp was a great success. Credit is due to the NCOs who led the contingent – Cpl Cardale, Cpl Waddington and SSgt Prior, and to the Senior Cadets who helped them – Cdts Boddington, Evans, Yard, and Browne. There was outstanding leadership shown by these throughout, and also amongst the Year 10 cadets who accompanied the contingent, who worked very hard to help the Year 9s.
Of course, our most substantial thanks go to Major Chapman and WO2 Yates, who not only organised the entire camp, but did by far the most work whilst we were actually there!
2008 - Penhale
