Salopians enjoy CCF Summer Camp adventures

Lt Col Nick David reflects on this year’s CCF Summer Camp, where 25 Salopians enjoyed an action-packed week.  

“Our Summer Camps aim to provide a fun and developmental experience for our cadets. This fits with the core purpose of CCF; which is to provide challenging experiences to develop character, resilience and leadership skills. Having delivered these camps for over 25 years I feel clear that our modus operandi of using a military format to put young people in charge of others can unlock for those cadets the satisfaction that comes from being in charge, especially when done with a sense of fun and challenge. 

“Our decision to run our own six-day programme was vindicated, albeit sadly for others, by the cessation of some national MOD run activities, but the 25 CCF members on our school run programme were able to enjoy an action-packed week. We spent three days ‘in the field’ at Nesscliffe Training Area, after which we moved to Talargerwyn in Snowdonia for an adventure training phase.  

“Throughout the week we rotated cadets through command appointments, putting them in charge of their peers. We were lucky to have some relatively experienced Lower Sixth Formers who were able to provide the background structure we needed, but we rotated these positions quite frequently. The staff agreed that the cadets were superb and were a great group to deal with – enthusiastic and willing to get stuck in.  

“After a very truncated year of CCF training they were clearly enjoying getting involved again and the week was a great success. As ever I am grateful to those cadets that signed up to attend – and they seldom regret the decision – but also to the staff that gave up their own time to support the event. 

“Some highlights for me were the camouflage skills day provided by soldiers of the Royal Irish Rangers Sniper Platoon, involving a ‘hunt Col David element’ - the day long ridge walk in Snowdonia and our slate mine exploration finale in Cwn Penmachno. 

Cadets who wish to reserve places on future camps (Easter and Summer 2022 are now available) should contact the Lt Col Nick David.