Over half term, the CCF went to the Longmoor Army Training base in Hampshire for a Methods of Instruction training course. This course was designed to prepare senior cadets for the year ahead, i.e. teaching cadets to teach. I had assumed the course would consist of sitting in a classroom listening to lectures on structuring lessons, public speaking, etc.- all fairly easy stuff.

The course turned out to be completely different. On the first day, we were thrown straight in at the deep end: the first thing I was asked to do was to give an improvised two-minute speech to ten people I had never met before. Later that same day, we had to present lessons on weapons handling. We were not allowed notes so had to learn our entire lesson plan off by heart. The prospect of giving a lesson was made even more daunting by the presence of our instructor, marking us not only on lesson content but class layout, subject knowledge and confidence. 

The next day we learnt how to teach drill (marching). This is much more difficult than it looks- it can be stressful to have the entire group marching off into the distance because you haven’t taught them to halt or turn around. Nevertheless, we all taught our drill lesson successfully. Completing the drill lessons concluded our methods of instruction course. All of the cadets passed but more importantly, everybody learnt a great deal about weapon handling, drill and conducting lessons as well as improving their public speaking skills.

The end of the week consisted of more typical CCF camp activities. On Thursday morning, we tackled an assault course consisting of huge obstacles- a twelve foot brick wall, a three foot wide ditch and a rope bridge to name but a few. Additionally, the assault course was done as a timed race. These two factors combined to make the Longmoor assault course was one of the most difficult the CCF has ever done. Therefore, teams really had to work together to ensure everybody was able to complete the course. Not only did this improve teamwork and communication but it was also amazingly fun.

Next we returned to the billets to pack for the training exercise that night.  About two hours later, we left the rooms and moved in tactical formation to the location where we would be setting up our patrol harbour (a patrol harbour is a position established to provide security when a patrol stops for an extended period of time). Once we had sent out reconnaissance patrols to ensure the area was secure, we set up our bashers. Bashers are pieces of canvas with strings attached to the corners. The idea is to tie the strings to trees so the canvas can act as a shelter. In practice, this is much more difficult than it sounds- it’s practically impossible to find a flat area of ground flanked by four trees. I ended up sleeping in a ditch with a poorly made basher over my head, praying it wouldn’t rain.

The next morning we woke up at five o’clock to prepare for the dawn raid. Waking up that early is always hard but it was made particularly difficult by the fact that most of us had done at least one hour’s sentry duty between midnight and four A.M. Once we were up, we quietly packed our bashers away and queued up to receive our blank rounds for the dawn raid. After creeping through the forest we launched a full-scale attack on the enemy (Mr. Christmas). With around thirty of us attacking, the enemy position was quickly annihilated. Once we had achieved our objective, we cleaned our rifles, had breakfast and went back to the billets to pack our suitcases for the return home. Before we left, we had a final parade. Every cadet was promoted- testimony to the fact that, as well as having a fantastic week, we had all learnt a huge amount from the camp.

Vivienne Hay, LVI