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. The CCF only contains an Army section and will do so for the foreseeable future. Cadets at Blundell’s join for a compulsory two terms in the Summer Term of Year Nine after which they can choose to stay in the corps, at which point we start to develop their leadership qualities. The top cadets are invited to develop their leadership qualities even further through the Cadet Leadership Course. All Year Nine cadets are, after intensive instruction, required to pass a Weapons Handling Test and are able, under the very strictest of supervision, to fire live rounds on a rifle range on Salisbury Plain.
The Officer Commanding the CCF is Mr Peter Chapman. The CCF is run by members of staff, all of whom teach at the School; three of them have served in the Armed Forces prior to their employment at Blundell’s. They are supported by instructors from the local Cadet Training Team who are full-time senior NCOs in the 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 first week of the summer holidays – these are voluntary and are always very popular. In 2006 we were invited to spend a week with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Fallingbostel, Germany.
Penhale
July 2008
16th July 2007
A contingent of Major Chapman, 2/Lt A’Lee, WOII Yates and Junior Under Officer Henderson took 56 cadets on camp this July. Penhale is on the north coast of Cornwall. Initial problems with the non-arrival of the coach were soon overcome and everyone arrived at the training camp. For some their initial impressions engendered foreboding as in the wind and rain the grey camp buildings amongst the sand dunes are not a welcoming sight. However within a short time everyone had settled in well.
The first day saw training in Military skills which included patrolling, setting an ambush, and escape and evasion. It was a sunny day and under the leadership of the Cadet Training Team this was a lot of fun and everyone returned to camp that night exhausted.
One day was spent at Millpool range, near Bodmin. We took turns shooting, manning the butts where the targets were marked and doing background activities such as survival where we learned how to start a fire with wire and a battery. Sharp shooters of the day were William Sprague and Ryan Gaskin, who both achieved the highest possible scores.
Another day was spent at Stithians Lake where we took part in a variety of water activities including sailing, kayaking and raft building. Although the weather wasn’t so good it didn’t matter much as everyone was going to get wet anyway. A few people from the group stayed in camp as there had been an opportunity to do signalling training and gain a qualification, so at the end of the day, Natalie Waddington, Sean Coleman and Elliot Prior qualified as radio operators and that evening Nat put her skills to the test when she linked up with cadet groups on the Isles of Scilly and in the Midlands by radio.
In the evenings there were competitions: an orienteering course had been set up and twenty cadets took part in this, competing not only against each other but also against all the other schools at Penhale. James Foan took the gold medal, completing the course in under 15 minutes having located all the checkpoints. He beat his nearest rival by a huge margin and was even better than any cadet in the previous week.
The March and Shoot competition involves a team of 8 cadets marching for 3 miles to the range and then shooting. Time penalties are given for each shot not fired in time and for the scores on the targets. Blundell’s entered three teams: Junior boys, senior boys and girls. All did well but took no medals.
The final competition of the week was the Obstacle course. This involved a team of ten overcoming bars, water runs, walls, jumps and a crawl net. Again three teams were entered in the three categories - the Junior boys took Gold medals, the girls silver and the Senior boys, bronze.
There was a day spent in camp rotating a circus of cadet skills stands including training for the obstacle course, a mine clearance skills task, a command task of filling a tube with water when both the tube and the carrying vessel have holes in, an observation stand and a treasure hunt which used navigational skills.
Good humour and high standards characterised this camp and amongst the awards given were best cadet, most enthusiastic cadet, most improved cadet, and others that people tried to avoid – blondest moment, admin vortex, most stupid question of the week and biggest sense of humour failure when trying to set up their poncho in the rain.
The OC, Major Chapman, is most grateful to WOII Yates, 2Lt A’Lee and JUO Henderson for their hard work to ensure the camp ran so smoothly, and to all the cadets for taking part and supporting the CCF.
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