News

To celebrate the end of another fantastic year for our unit, we spent the day at Deeside ice skating rink. Our cadets had a great time ice skating (or trying their best to anyway), and when they got too cold retired to the side to eat chips and drink hot chocolate. Tired after a long day, our cadets agreed that this was the perfect end to the year and are all looking forward to the new challenges that the next year will present.

Our cadets recently competed against other teams from across the city in our District Football Competition. A senior boys team and senior girls team were entered from our unit this year,  and to prepare they spent the summer training on Otterspool promenade. Sadly neither of our teams managed to place in the top three positions, however all of our cadets agree that as usual they had fun anyway.

Everybody likes to see their efforts recognised, and for this reason once a year our unit holds an awards night in which cadets whom we believe have put in an effort that is above and beyond what is asked of them are given awards in recognition of this. At this years event all of our cadets parents were invited down to watch the awards being given, before this however they were shown a presentation which summed up all of our cadets amazing achievements over the previous year, as well as being treated to a performance by our marching band. Well done to all those cadets that were given an award tonight, however as always we would like to point out that regardless of whether they were given an award or not, every single cadet in our unit is a valued member of our team and we are proud to have them as a part of our unit.

Four of our cadets recently spent the weekend at another unit as they attended a basic navigation course. They spent the weekend learning the skills they would need to navigate a ship to a chosen destination using nothing more than charts and some basic tools; to do this they learned skills such as planning a safe passage, identifying buoys, and were introduced to predicting tide patterns. This basic specialisation puts these cadets in the perfect position to go on and pursue nationally recognised qualifications such as RYA Essential Navigation and Safety and ultimately their RYA Day Skipper Shorebased award.

To celebrate the year as it draws to a close (and of course to raise some much needed funds), our unit recently played host to our annual winter ball. Following days of intensive preparation, guests were greeted to champagne and a buffet whilst they listened to our live entertainment (including a performance by our own marching band), as well as an opportunity to have their picture taken by a professional photographer and the chance to win big in our raffle draw. A big thank you to all those who helped us prepare as thanks to your efforts we managed to raise over £1500, which will be invaluable in helping to train our cadets next year.