I read with much excitment the statement made by the Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop yesterday about the future of Scottish Education. This is truly a very exciting time in education and these plans will allow for a greater flexibility in the curriculum which will take away the pressures of subject choice and external exams for the younger pupils whilst equipping them with the necessary skills for later life. In addition, it will allow more time to study for Highers which, particulalry in History where there is vast amounts of information can be very rushed. I look forward to hearing more about this in the coming months.

Last weekend I accompanied the Knox cadets to the Lothian and Borders Army Cadet Force centre at Drumshoreland. The aim of the weekend was to select a team to represent ‘A Company’ in a military skills competition this coming weekend. The idea being that ‘A Company’ and knox would work together to form composite junior and senior teams as both were struggling to make teams on their own due to a lack of numbers. The pupils enjoyed the weekend, and after competing with the ACF cadets for a place in the team, they were pleased to learn that the senior team is to be made up of only knox cadets. In addition, three members of the CCF have been asked to act as casualties for the first aid part of the competition.

Well done to all selected and good luck in the competition!

This evening East Lothian council hosted a civic reception in Haddington Town House to mark the start of the centenary celebrations. An exhibition showing events and photographs from throughout the history of the cadets at Knox was open to the public all afternoon and was well attended. Some newspaper articles on display actually mentioned an unofficial cadet force being in place at Knox as far back as 1906!

The official reception was opened by the Knox Academy Pipe Band. This was our first external ‘gig’ and the pupils put on a wonderful show for the invited guests. The performance was follwed by speeches. These speeches included an address by the Head Teacher of Knox, Major George McFarlane and Colonel J Wilson the head of the Scottish Territorial Army.  This was followed by a fantastic buffet.

The event was a huge success and I am very much looking forward to the next event in what promises to be a very busy year for the Knox Academy Combined Cadet Force.

This weekend I attended a residential course at Redford Barracks run by 24 Cadet Training Team. I was originally booked on the CCF Preliminary Officers Course, but as the only CCF officer attending, I joined in the Army Cadet Force Initial Training Course which was a week long course. This meant that I found myself very much in at the deep end and my learning curve looked more like a vertical line!

Nonetheless, I learned a great deal about the cadet force, how it is run and the skills that the young people learn. I had training in skill at arms, drill including marching and turnout and basic map and compass skills. While some of the information was not new to me, for example with a yatchmaster theory qualification the map and compass lessons were fairly straight forward. The Methods of Instruction Training was simply showing us how to teach the cadets, which was very much like teacher training, I did learn lots about using the Cadet GP riffle (I have the bruises to prove it!) and about different aspects of military drill.

I certainly feel that I have learned a lot about the Cadet Force and I would recommend this course to any adult wishing to help in either the ACF or the CCF. However, a word of warning, it is a very busy weekend and a fair amount of prior knowledge is essential before undertaking this course, as is not aimed at someone just beginning to learn the information.

Finally, I must thank Sgt C Bowman for helping me catch up with the rest of the class during his lunch breaks.