Okay I didnt get any booklet… I haven’t been told anything about the introduction stage and I honestly don’t know much about anything even tho I’ve only been going 6 weeks.
I was wondering about cadet boots too because my mate from another squadron only paid £15 for their boots but I’m having to pay £50 to get them from an army shop. Is this normal? I was told before joining the boots were included in the uniform with the £20 joining fee but I’m having to buy boots and I had to buy a fleece so it’s coming up on £100 for me and It doesn’t make sense since it’s supposed to help kids with disadvantages but I’m not getting that at all.
Elements of what you have said are quite concerning.
You have raised issues surrounding health and safety and first aid incidents with in your words no action being taken.
If this is an accurate reflection of events it needs reporting.
Speak to you adult staff. Ask the question. They wont take issue with your asking.
IF in the unlikely event they do.
You or your parents can contact your aector commander. Details should have been provided in your induction. Failing that your wing HQ.
Failing all of the above.
Come back on here. Ask for a moderator and I am sure they can put you in contact with who you need to speak with.
Get mum or dad to speak to the CO, more impact than you.
If these cadets have fainted, I’m surprised their parents haven’t been in or the staff spoken to them on the evening. Which you will know nothing about. Their fainting might be quite normal. I’ve had cadets who have fainted at the sqn and the parents have said it’s not unusual and invariably linked to the stage of their life.
I do love the “go to another sqn” lines, given that this depends on the location of other sqns and parental desire to take their offspring, which of course we don’t know either way.
The girl who fainted parents weren’t called in. I was with her the whole time and she left at the same time as me without her parents going in. Maybe it was a normal thing for her but the officers blaming it on her not having her boots yet was weird and it obviously came from standing still for so long with no movement because they don’t let us copy footwork
Interesting. If a cadet is struggling we always recommend boots first as they can be worn with blues and greens if needs be. As parade shoes can’t exactly be worn in greens.
I think the phraseology you might be looking for “is some Squadrons are better than others”.
The grounds I make this assertion on is that some have good leadership who will arrange for a varied training and activity program and are willing to think on thier feet when an activity needs to be cancelled or postponed, and there are those who don’t.
Agreed. OCs of failing squadrons need better training and support. If they’re really not up to the job, replace them. A good leader will always have contingency plans, rather than just leaving staff and cadet NCOs to organised some half-arsed* programme on the night or default to drill nights too frequently. I keep lesson plans & materials to hand so that I can easily step in if another member of staff doesn’t show. Think of your younger self in the cadets’ boots, then plan accordingly. That means lots of imaginative, hands-on training. Get the younger cadets involved. Get new staff to shadow you so that they learn to do the same. I believe all CIs should be encouraged to choose a useful subject and take steps to be a squadron SME during their probation period. Perhaps this should be a requirement to pass the 6 month probationary period? It could be something simple, e.g. history of the ATC/RAF.
Is OC not fully aware and it’s Trg Off that’s failing? How many staff are actually at this Sqn? Are the others just twiddling their thumbs? Are there time commitment issues feeding into deficiencies and supervision/observations?
This isn’t one single point of failure, despite the fallback of “OC is ultimately responsible”.
There’s undoubtedly problems at this unit - it may not even be incompetence (perhaps the staff are busy updating all of their risk assessments to the new format…). Although if they were that up on their H+S then fainting, especially multiple, would have been a more serious issue for them. Failures right there, but what’s the experience level and is anything being hidden with “everything’s fine boss”?
The support angle would be the way to go, without apportioning blame.
It’s too easy to judge and blame the bloke or woman at the top, when there are a whole group under them not doing what they should or doing their own thing. Bring this into the CFAV world people get much more judgemental on the word of an individual, because we are all perfect and never let things slip. In this instance we know so little about the sqn as per the potential observations about staff made by @Giminion. Would anyone be able to help, doubt it; would anyone be willing to help, doubt it; as we are all busy and in the last 2 years so much has changed for so many, that they may not be able or willing to do what they were. We’re seeing this locally and it has left gaping wounds in what we were able to do and the people with the quals and experience are, surprising as some may find it, not banging the door in to fill the gaps.
Too many times “we” get lost in this nonsense about what makes a “better” sqn and eulogise about what we perceive it to be, not realising that we are all a gnat’s nadger away from not being our vision of “better”. It only takes one member of staff to leave or something happening and the house of cards tumbles.
