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Thursday 28th February
CCF

Field Day for Platoons 3 and 4 (Year 9) and NCOs (Nesscliff TA)

The school's Combined Cadet Force Contingent enjoyed its first field day of 2008 in glorious sunshine on Nescliff Training Area today.  The day was focussed on developing the knowledge and personal skills of the year 9 students who started working towards the army proficiency certificate which cadets attempt to complete in the first 2 years of service.  The day built upon the previous field day (which was held in school) with the cadets having the added excitement of being on a formal military training area for the first time, which involved sharing the area with other units such as the Royal Signals and the Helicopter Defence Flying School.
 
The cadets rotated around a series of 5 stands which involved more military based training than they had experienced in the Thursday afternoon slots they have weekly.  The stands included:

Obstacle Crossing:

How to move a team over an obstacle such as a gate or stile in a tactical situation

Duties of a sentry:

How to be an effective sentry as well as the protocol involved in the task

Movement with and without a weapon:

Individual movement through, over and around different terrain

Observation Lane:

A pairs’ exercise involving cadets patrolling an area to find items of equipment (including a sniper which most of them missed!)

Patrolling Skills:

How to move their team over, around and through different types of cover using different formations and hand signals

The cadets rose to the challenges put before them admirably and left the exercise tired but having enjoyed the day which will now lead to their first time out overnight in a military situation in the Trinity Term.  The first physical test of this was the culmination of the field day when the cadets patrolled around 2kms after a mentally and physically tiring day.  This was made easier by the distraction of the trainee pilots from the Helicopter Defence Flying School who were practising low level flying in very close proximity to the cadets as they showed good patrolling technique to the transport.

AO