If air cadet rules say you can have blue hair but school rules says you can’t - then a blue-haired cadet/pupil would be sent home due to school regulations.
Conversely if school rules say you can have blue hair but air cadets rules say that you can’t, then whilst the prohibition on blue hair can be encouraged, you can’t enforce any discipline of the standards as the pupil would still be complying with the school rules.
Yes the blue-haired pupil would not /should not be permitted to parade outside of school on camps and the like but that would be the limits of the enforceable discipline.
I have heard of CCF officers being disciplined (as in a work sense) for insisting on the military standard & going beyond school rules (normally after a parent has complained).
Which would you do? Enforce to the letter the uniform standard of the volunteer extra-curricular activity & potentially get sacked from the day job, or frown, tutt but let it slide whilst on school site?
It’s an interesting paradox but I think (going opinion now) that something that those in ATC world forget about the CCF is that from the viewpoint of the leadership teams of the school, the uniform of the cadets has the same prestige & status as those in costume for the school play or the inter-house Dungeons & Dragons club.
We digress but To be fair to the CCF the leadership who govern the rules are highly unlikely to be the uniformed CFAVs actually running it & having to balance school rules with cadet rules.
Imagine it as each ATC Sqn had a political civil servant attached to it from Whitehall or if the Civcom got an initial say on unit discipline.
But as a counterpoint perhaps us in the ATC could learn a little bit from the mentality. That’s it’s what we do rather than how we look that’s important and not to be too fanatical in the hobby we use to hide from the humdrum of our day jobs l. A lot of people not involved in the ATC consider us to be a quaint organisation with silly hats who live out our own little fantasy. (Any one who has left might have sympathy view point).
If the CCF cadet from early wishes to be a rules-lawyer at their unit then crack on, it’s completely their choice & decision. However it’s important to know which rules will have the influence before you rely on them or utilised them in a debate.
