A busy week for the Service Afternoon activities

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, CCF and the Arts Programme are all offered as part of our Service Afternoon for Third Form (Year 9) pupils and above. This week pupils were engaged in a variety of events to further these activities. 

CCF cadets embarked on their first training exercise to learn the basic skills and knowledge of field craft and Skill at Arms (SAA). Navigational skills were honed during an orienteering activity on Esher Common, along with learning how to construct a basha, prepare rations and camouflage techniques. SAA training, practicing fire and manoeuvre tactics were achieved at a local paintballing ground! 

For the Arts Programme, a group of 4th Form pupils went to London to deepen their engagement with the arts. Their a trip focused on portraiture at two iconic galleries, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain, explored historical and contemporary portraits, gaining insight into how identity is portrayed through art.

An outbreak of ‘heart attacks’, ‘broken bones’, ‘allergic reactions’ and ‘chokings’ had to be dealt with as the entire 3rd Form undertook a full day of First Aid training.  Eight external trainers spent the day teaching pupils how to deal with a multitude of situations. They will be awarded with a nationally recognised First Aid certificate, forming a vital part of their Bronze DofE training but, more importantly, they learnt vital life skills that might just save someone's life.

The boys doing the Silver DofE practice expedition were treated to some far from accurate forecasting with Ranmore Common suffering rain, rain and even more rain for most of the day. This made their route muddy and quite a hard slog, as well as obscuring the beautiful views over the North Downs. The core values of responsibility and resilience were key to their success on this occasion!