I attended the CCF Pipes and Drums Committee AGM  which was held at Dollar Academy last week. 

The Knox Academy cadets attended their annual camp held at Barrybuddon near Dundee. We left last Saturday and headed up to Ballater in Aberdeenshire for a two day adventure training package. We stayed at Victoria Barracks and were treated to hill walking, abseiling and kayaking. Big well done to LT Byers and all the pupils for a successful assent of the 3rd highest mountain in Scotland at Lochnagar!  

On Monday evening we arrived at Barrybuddon camp for the military skills part of the week long camp. We were greeted by our outgoing OC Major McFarlane, Sergeant Kerr and Miss Patterson a member staff from Knox. Tuesday was a very busy day which started on the ranges. Pupils were given the chance to fire the cadet GP riffle. However, the main excitment of the day was firing the machine gun. After a bit of persuasion and encouragement from LT Byers and the cadets I had a go at firing the machine gun. I will now admit that I was indeed ‘cheesing’, it was fun!

We left the ranges mid afternoon and the pupils were put through their paces in the drill competition. The pupils did extremely well and came second, missing out on first place by just 1 point! The drill competition was followed by the assault course. Due to a tightening of the rules, only five of our cadets were allowed to take part. Nonetheless they did very well to come in 6th place.

On Wednesday the pupils visited a number of different demonstration stands and were shown various aspects of military life from first aid, to the infantry and the artillary to signals and mine sweeping.

Thursday was the day that the pupils were most excited about and I was dreading most. We left camp in the morning to go to the woods that we would be spending the night in. The pupils took part in a section attack where they were acting out a scenario of helping locals preserve their independence. The enemy was played by the UOTC.  The cadets enjoyed the chance to run around and fire at the enemy.

Next stop was the survival stand where the pupils were shown how to build an effective shelter, how to trap animals to eat, how to light a fire and how the skin and prepare a rabbit.

Thursday night saw the much talked about ambush. We left the camspite at 2130 and the cadets patrolled through various terain until they reached the ambush area. The ambush gave the cadets another chance at firing at the enemy but this time flares were being set off all over the place lightening up the sky much like a fireworks display. It truly was an awsome sight! We were back at the campsite by 2330 ready to get into our bashers. I must thank Lt Byers for building me a five star luxury tent! Despite my worrying I was very surprised at how warm it was and how easy it was to sleep in our shelters.

Next morning we were woken up at 0430 to the sound of riffle fire as the cadets from Kelvinside Academy took part in a dawn attack nearby. By 0500 we were all up and getting ready to walk back into camp. The Knox cadets did well patrolling back into camp and the UOTC even commented on the professionalism of the pupils!

After some much needed sleep we were treated to a visit to Arbroath where we were given some time to look round the fishing town.

Back at camp we held a presentation ceremony for the pupils who were congratulated on their efforts over the past year with prizes and promotions. The pupils also thanked the staff with presents which were very much appreciated. In addition, Major McFarlane was presented with a photograph by the senior cadets in celebration of his retirement.

It was a fitting end to a vey busy, eventful, but most importantly a very enjoyable week. I must thank all the pupils who attended the camp for making me feel so welcome and helping me when I was unsure of things and also for their encouragment when I was trying new activities. As always, they were a credit to the CCF and Knox Academy. In addition, I must thank Riki Byers for his support and encouragment and for building me the hotel on Thursday night. Finally, huge congratulations to George McFarlane on his retirement. He will be missed within the contingent but his legacy will be with every cadet that he has taught and nurtured.

Yesterday I visited Liz Brookes, Principal Teacher of Outdoor Education within East Lothian Council. The reason for my visit was that Liz had very kindly offered to talk to me about the various qualifications I would need in order to become GTC recognised as a Teacher of Outdoor Education.

We are very lucky in East Lothian as we have a very good and busy Outdoor Education Team who not only provide lots of opportunities for our pupils but also provide a wide variety of staff development opportunities. I intend to book onto various courses over the coming months in order to build up my qualifications. In addition, Liz is also allowing me to help the team out during my spare time to build up my experience.

 I would like to thank Liz for taking the time to talk to me.

It doesn’t seem very long ago that I was planning a sailing voyage on board Greater Manchester Challenge for 11 S2 and S3 pupils. The trip has now been and gone and we have already started the planning process for next years trip. We left Knox Academy on Monday 19th May and headed to Troon Yacht Haven to meet the 78ft Gaff rigged ketch that was to be our home for the next week. We were welcomed aboad GMC with a lunch of soup and sausage rolls. After a discussion on our aims for the week and all the relevant familiarisation and safety briefings we departed a plan to get to Campbelltown.  After alot of ‘feeding the fishes’ we arrived at Campbelltown where we stayed the night. The next day was another long sail round the Mull of Kintyre to Bowmore on the Island of Islay where we anchored for the night. Both days had been tiring for all the pupils so we made the descision to stay in Bowmore on the Wednesday. This allowed the pupils to have a look round Bowmore and go swimming. On the Thursday we left Bowmore at 7am to head back to Campbelltown. Due to weather and tidal conditions the sail took us 21 hours and we arrived in Campbelltown at 4.30am on Friday morning, just in time to watch the whole of Cambelltown fishing fleet leave - quite a sight to see! Friday morning was spent catching up on some well needed rest and buying goodies for the remainder of the trip. We left Campbelltown late afternoon to enjoy a short sail up the Mull to Carradale Bay where we played lots of games around the table. On Saturday we sailed up round the top of Arran and headed back down towards Troon before heading off to the beach to play rounders. We cleaned the boat on Sunday morning before leaving on the bus to go back to Haddington. A great week was had by all and I must thank my colleague Peter Doig for stepping in to help at the last minute.

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.

Last week Knox Academy held its annual Spring Concert. As always the standard of music on show was very high with many pupils displaying a great deal of talent. This was the second public performance of the Knox Pipe Band. We marched in with Scotland the Brave, Rowan Tree, Bonnie Galloway and then we played The Skye Boat Song and Glasgow Police Pipers. The second being a jig. I was very proud of the band especially as we played the jig very well complete with some fantastic drumming and harmonies and even more so when you consider that many competing pipe bands won’t even try this jig!

A huge thanks must go to Colin Pryde and Carl Williams for all the hard work they have put in to help get the pupils sounding so fantastic.

I am hoping to post the perfomance on here but need to find some way of extracting the sound from the video. If anyone has any ideas as to how I can do this then please drop me a line.

Last week we were visited by Matt Roache from Ocean Youth Trust Scotland who delivered a very enjoyable presentation to both parents and pupil involved in the sailing trip. Matt explained what it would be like for the young people from the minute we arrive on the boat until we leave 7 days later. He showed some video clips including a snapshot of a typical voyage. This was a real eye opener to the pupils as they saw what life was like at sea from the people working on deck to people enjoying their time off watch by reading a book or chilling in their bunks. Matt also told the pupil about ‘Happy Hour’ which we will have every morning. This is when the music is put on and we clean through the boat.

I was really pleased when one pupil came up to me the next day and told me that he is even more excited (I didn’t think this would be possible!) than he was before.

I would like to thank Matt for braving the horrendous weather and coming into Knox to give a fantastic presentation.

Yesterday  saw the Sports Relief mile at Knox Academy. The event was organised by the S6 charities committee. At lunchtime a good number of staff and pupils took to the field wearing their red and white Sports Relief socks to run the two laps. After school, some memebrs of the staff running group ran along the river Tyne again showing off our new socks.

Well done to the Charities Committee for organising the event and to all that took part.