As previously discussed the age of joining changed and I was looking for clarification in the matter. Here in Scotland, children start the new school year after the half term in May prior to the summer holidays. Therefore a person aged 12 would be in S2 prior to the summer holidays when the new school year would officially start. My question is can they join the cadets prior to the summer holidays or do they have to wait till the school year officially starts in August.
taken from ACP20 PI 501
[quote]TERMS OF SERVICE
2. The ATC promotes equal opportunities and cadet membership is open to all young people regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic origin or religion. A young person who is over 12 years of age becomes eligible to join the Air Cadet Organisation from the start of school year 8 in England and Wales, year S2 in Scotland and Year 9 in Northern Ireland. In addition any young person
becomes eligible to join when they reach 13 years of age regardless of their school year. [/quote]
my bold answers the question i hope?
From WROs
ORDER NO 3 – ATC JOINING AGE
5.​With the applicable school year cut off dates in Scotland being 1 Mar annually, this means that with effect no potential cadets who are under the age of 13 years may join the ATC in Scotland. This will remain in place until 15 Aug 16 and at which point 12 year olds may once again join the ATC, as long as they are in S2. This in turn will remain in effect until 28th Feb 17.
MB
Frankly those WROs do little to clarify the situation which is actually a bit simpler.
Cadets aged 13 can join, regardless of which school year they are in.
Cadets aged 12 can join, but only if they are in S2 and school has started back after the summer holidays.
Part of the problem arises from the fact that students move from S1 to S2 after the exams in May - before they break for summer. This is sometimes described as “trying out the new timetable” but they are actually considered to be fully in S2 at that point. If we allowed all 12yr olds in S2 to join, they would be joining around 3 months earlier than the english yr8.
I’ve got a question. So I’m 16 turning 17 in October and I’m thinking of joining cadets in Scotland. The thing that I don’t know or am not sure about is that since I’m in my last year of school (S6) and am going away to university maybe in Edinburgh or Glasgow… can I still go to cadets even though it’s for over a year? Someone help please!
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Yes you can.
You’ll need to join before your 17th birthday, though!