Hi was wondering do more squadrons teach senior and master level in squadron or do you do self study?
I found my previous lot self study didn’t learn properly and so much they should know that they don’t they where also released exams not by me which they where doing at home I imagine just looking up the answers which all is pointless.
Ive also had 1 of my C.I and staff cadet goto teach leading cadet for the first time in a while and they have come back saying they are finding it so difficult and confusing and trying to line up the logbooks with the presentations. Bare in mind my staff cadet is master cadet and my c.i is a retired commercial pilot and ex military. Both of said its so overly complicated trying to teach it to the cadets and obviously we know they are heavily outdated. Even my C.I said things on it he hasn’t even come accross which is crazy.
I haven’t personally taught the leading syllabus yet as I mostly teach all other courses so I can’t comment directly on it. I just wondered how others are doing it and what advise you could offer for my "C.I and staff cadet teaching leading.
Any help and resources would be greatly appreciated thanks
At my unit, we teach all classifications during the winter months including Senior/Master, however over the past few years the number of cadets at that level are dwindling so I decided to put those going for Senior and Master in one class with a single instructor. The instructor tends to be a CFAV due to experience delivering the HQ powerpoints and the slightly more in depth subjects and then the Instructor cadets are usually delivering first class and leading.
We teach the subjects on unit to fill the programme, self-taught is only an option is someone has been away for a good reason and miased our sessions.
You can easily fill 4-5 parade nights with the training if your instructors take the time to prepare in advance. Run through the PP’s and understand the content, use props where necessary for engagement i.e. use models or 3D print engines etc. There are some good PPs on the training portal, although not as good as the first class level, but as said if your instructors prep beforehand they can ensure they engage with the cadets.
One thing I did when I took over as OC on my unit was to stop ‘self study’ for senior and master. I teach a number of the modules myself and I’m lucky to have CIs who can cover most of the others.
It’s had the additional positive impact of keeping staff engaged who were otherwise less involved; they are dealing with older and hopefully more motivated cadets and can make the subject their own, if they want to.
The printing overhead means they are not that practical and then of course they have to be stored.
The ideal would be to have tablets with them preloaded on but we don’t have the budget for that; that said I allow those on my senior / master lessons to download the materials and bring a tablet into the lesson, if that’s how they like to work. More seem to work that way at school or college now!
@rock don’t forget to factor in the SQA booklets into your classifications, yes they are a bit of effort for the staff but absolutely worth it for the SQA points the cadet can achieve.
Lot of good points here, @willow pointed ot putting them all in the same class which is what My sqn ended up doing (2 staff and 2 Cdt Sgts made it necessary) but then we stuck with it.
Putting too much focus on who teaches I find can be a bit detremental, I taught most of the Subjects as my Trg Off picked subjects he had niche skills in and 3-4 of them were overlapped with my own, so when he was back from Uni I’d give the class to him and start teaching one of the other classes