Sorry for spamming today…but what else is there to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon!
So, first things first, would anyone be prepared to share their annual or a monthly training programme with me?
I’m aware that all plans for sqn specific based on facilities, staff, numbers etc, but it would be good to get an idea of what others do etc
Second, how do you share your plans with cadets?
My idea was to have an Excel doc as a staff facing one, and a cadet facing one with limited info on, which is automatically drawn down from the staff facing one.
However, I can’t share it as the share settings are restricted to log in. So cadets have to go through Bader etc. I wanted an easy to access plan for cadets and parents etc
We use the function on Cadet Portal so that they can make informed choices on nights they can’t make / have other priorities.
Oddly enough I was of the same thought of I didn’t want to share it because then they’ll pick. But then I realised they pay to be in so of course they can choose what to do, as long as they know the consequences of not coming in for say academics all the time I.e. They’ll drop behind there peers. As it happens this is the first squadron where all the cadets have over 80% attendance, with the majority over 90%. Whether that’s because we release the training program, or something else I don’t know!
We have the following as regular (which almost fills the program it self)
2 Academic Nights
A Flight Competition or flight night
Sports on the last Wednesday
1 Skills project night
1 Volunteering Project night
1 drill/uniform night
1 Development/Chaplain night/NCO Meeting
Obviously every now and again its gets a little mixed as we need to add thin ng s in which means we need to bump something else
I’m only a year back in as a fully-badged CFAV and have been trying to find the balance between a process through which a cadet can see clear structure, progression, and predictability, but without making it too cumbersome to plan or too inflexible.
I’m now trying term 1 of 4, which seems to be going very well.
Winter Term is focussed in the following way:
Monday in blues with the main session geared towards classification training. The programme runs forward regardless of who is in and we use the rest of the year to help cadets catch up as required. This ensures the academic offer is dished out while school is at its least intense and weather is likely to be poorest (and nights their darkest).
Thursday is green kit and geared towards maximising the number of cadets we can get on the air rifle range in a year, enabling us to exploit a USP and develop good marksmanship principles over time for competitions (and an annual sqn competition).
The second key principle for Thursdays is practicing and developing skills that are important, but in a way that no one falls behind if pulled out to go on the range.
First aid scenarios and learning skills on the bronze syllabus (not counting towards the qual), STEM & leadership exercises, band practice etc.
Future terms have yet to be settled, but:
Spring will likely swap classification study for a larger project we can do together, such as the space syllabus or various other things that we could put on a larger 4-year roulement (Thursdays remain similar to know, perhaps tweaked to exploit weather, perhaps more fieldcraft etc).
Summer Pt1: wing competition day intensive prep
Summer Pt2: Something really chill and unstructured because people bomb burst for the summer. Maybe more archery to go along with the air rifle shooting, perhaps a laser tag or go karting trip (any similar sort of outing which is permissible — I haven’t checked in detail at this time, but that’s the principle)
If you want copies of the posters I made to show cadets and parents what they can expect to achieve (including one for our recruit training programme), at a glance, ping me an email: oc.1324@rafac.mod.gov.uk
That definitely feels like a decision that can depend on unit size and make up as well.
For a smaller unit, just a handful of picky individuals can have a negative effect on the experience of those who do turn up. But if you have 20 1st class cadets, or 10 out of 40 regular attendees that don’t like drill nights, or whatever, it’s less of an impact.
We made the decision when we were a much smaller unit (paradigm around 15)
Honestly was absolutely the best thing to do and find they don’t actually skip the “boring” stuff. We mostly find that its the older ones who are weighing up revision, or potentially going out.
The other side of it is making sure even the “boring” staff isn’t boring. Different individuals will find different things more interesting or not but there is definitely some elements you can mix up.
We are also similar to 1324 above where we are Blues on Wednesday, Greens on Friday except the last Wednesday of the month which is sports kit. Just helps get into a rhythm of remembering what uniform it is without having to look at the program
I’ve always been a strong supporter of sharing the plan, on the basis if they stop showing up because it’s boring then you’re not doing a good enough job of making it interesting.
I also suggest splitting parade nights in two to help. Mix a half night of something “dull” with a half night of something more active.
If anyone is willing to share their plans, or even just their templates, I would appreciate it. Looking to update mine as the current one is more than a bit clunky.
Equally, if anyone has some brilliant activity ideas to help me fill the plan, that would also be great
It blows my mind that people actively choose not to share their training programme in case members of a voluntary club tell them with their feet that it’s boring. As above, they are literally paying to be there, and maybe it’s more an indictment on your programme than the cadets not being motivated?
Being a training officer is the single hardest role on squadron but you can still make an active and engaging programme and at the same time change mindsets from people must attend at all times to “if it’s good enough people will come and stay”.
We were the same at one point with posting the monthly training programme, we now let the nco’s choose what to put on the training programme as it’s things that interest them. We noticed a reduction in attendance when it came to classification training. But now we are easily getting 80%'ish on a night because of the varying nightly activities. We ask on the parents page to encourage cadets to attend which means they are out of their hair for a few hours and that seems to help
