As the organisation has become a little bit more school-based (PTS), how do you manage cadets attendance and missing work?
For example if you are delivering a particular learning outcome for a blue badge syllabus such as space, if a cadet misses a few of those sessions… How do you catch them up? … Let’s say that you plan to catch cadet A up the following week but they don’t attend then either?
How do you also manage cadets who go on camps and obtain blue syllabus stuff such as Astra camps. For example you might have one or two cadets on squadron who might have the blue space badge but no one else. So you want to do a blue space night but then have to plan something for the other cadets who have completed it etc
I am new to RAFAC (That new I am still waiting for my DBS and to get started) But I have worked teaching volunteers including the coastguard and Search and rescue who have similar competencies to manage whilst also managing balance with the rest of their lives. Personally I would break this down into two parts. One may be a problem but the other may be a benefit.
If a cadet doesn’t turn up, You could provide an element of self directed study (to be reviewed in discussion with you at a later time) or guided study from yourself or the cadets you have identified as ahead of the curve.
The advantage of this is you are supporting the development of the cadets who may otherwise be bored repeating the same lesson, But it also gives you an opportunity to confirm their knowledge if they where assessed by others. This also gives those who don’t attend a chance to catch up. As there is usually lower numbers for this you can find that catch up can be done quicker than the usual taught lesson. Not only this but supporting another learning a skill often really reinforces the confidence of those sharing their knowledge.
However, There is also the simple truth that commitment is rewarded, They may just have to wait for the cycle to repeat and pick up where they left of if they are unable to catch up.
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I’m with @Jerrycan on this one. I’ve been teaching post-16 for the last couple of years and we use a similar process of indicated self directed study for an individual which is then ideally ‘understanding checked’ either individually or rolled into a wider pre-planned checkpoint within syllabus sequencing.
If they have only missed a single session, a ‘group discussion’ based entry routine can give them enough information regarding what they have missed by listening to their peers information recall that they can participate in the forthcoming session and you can fill in the gaps in whatever way you feel best later on.
As for the second part of your question I hesitate to comment as it’s a situation I’ve not had to deal with. However getting students who already have a baseline proficiency in something to participate in instruction is a great way to develop soft skills.
With regards to your first question, we tend to run blue courses on weekends (EFA, leadership, and radios) to avoid that problem. Although that won’t be practice for every squadron and means you have to come up with other activities to fill parade nights.
In terms of catching people up, we do this often with our junior cadets if they miss a lesson, we try to fit in an additional session, perhaps just 1 on 1 to catch them up. The main disadvantage of this is that they’ll miss out on something else.
Your last point is a tricky one if it’s only a couple. If you have a decent number then you can try to arrange something more advanced for them (if you have the resources). Leadership is an easy one to do this for, as there’s lots outside the syllabus that you can do if you’re not signed off to deliver bronze. Leadership is also one that you can get them involved with the delivery of as there is no sign off required for delivery of blue.
Other than that, it’s just what the others have said. Get them involved in delivery, even if informally (I find having a couple of experienced helpers for delivering EFA really handy), or set them some related tasks to complete, potentially by themselves if you don’t have sufficient resource.