EducationFeaturedNews

College kids get a taste of life at Collingwood

STAFF from the Royal Naval Leadership Academy at HMS Collingwood have been putting a Frome College group through their paces.
The students, all from years 9 and 10, were enjoying a ‘taster session’ to show them to some of the opportunities available in the Combined Cadet Force introduced at the college in October 2019.
Unfortunately, activities then had to be curtailed due to the pandemic. Now, with cadets graduating from the college, the program has restarted and the take-up for this first session was encouraging/ Thirteen students enjoyed learning new skills both on the low-ropes course and, later, through a unique hands-on insight into the traditional Naval Field Gun competition.
In the morning, they tackled the low ropes course, a discipline that teaches and promotes teamwork as the obstacles can only be traversed successfully when cadets work together. Later, they were introduced to the base’s cadets’ field gun. They trained in the discipline which involves running with the gun, before disassembling and reassembling both it and its limber.
Once again, this tests the cadets’ ability to work as a team as each member has their own responsibilities and needs to work to his or her unique strengths to ensure the fastest run time. Although this initial session was conducted at a much slower pace, the cadets soon began to show leadership, determination and teamwork to achieve a smooth final run.
Student Jake Birch said: “I’m really enjoying this! This is a useful session as I need to choose between cadets and rugby when I return to school.”
Ana Layland also enjoyed and said: “This sounded like a great opportunity to learn more about the cadets and now I’m quite interested in being a field gunner! It’s good because lifting the individual components of the gun on your own is tough but much easier when you work together.”
PICTURED: Students are encouraged to use their unique strengths to create a successful Field Gun team. Photograph courtesy of Keith Woodland, Crown copyright