Yesterday, cadets helped at the annual Napton Horse Show. Their duties involves managing the show rings, setting up and repairing horse jumps, running up and down with paperwork, handing out leaflets, and assisting the event staff with other various jobs that needed doing along the way! The cadets were a real asset to the smooth running of the show, and the squadron is very proud of how good of a job they did. One even conquered a fear of dogs - helpful for the dog show later in the day! A big well done to all the cadets that helped yesterday, and there is no doubt that the squadron will be asked for their services at next year's show.

A good team is made up with people who each have unique talents but can collectively work together to a common goal. Yes, the big sports news from last weekend had nothing to do with Man City or Liverpool but rather than our amazing team of 1368 air cadets achieved best overall squadron in the Wing for athletics at the Warwickshire and Birmingham Wing Athletics Competition 2022 (best in 19 squadrons). Amazing personal achievements but a fantastic team effort. Special thanks to "Rachel" for giving the crew her handy Javelin tips. Special mention to our amazingly strong NCO team for pulling this off with fantastic coaching, teaching and leadership, and Ma'am for setting the pace. 1st in Senior girls, 1st in Junior girls, 2nd in Boys, so many medals, but also great participation across all the ages. Also, a great day where over 300 young people came together to have a really fun competition with lots of excitement and enthusiasm to just try their best. 

Turning out to be a bit of a golden intake this one. Well done to our cohort of First Class cadets on getting their certificates and badges by completing their First Class training. Onwards and upwards.  First Class is the first in the classification system that all air cadets undergo in their progression in the organisation (Leading, Senior and Master to go) and covers broad range of foundation subjects such as The Royal Air Force, Initial Expedition Training, Map Reading, History of Flight, Airmanship, and Basic Radio Communications. 

As the Silver DofE'ers did preparation for their 'amazingly funny and well thought out, multi-media show' of their ghostly Shropshire Silver expeditions, aspiring newer cadets kicked off their IET training with tent familiarisation ready for Bronze (maybe IET if we can find more staff).

Service to the community is part of the fabric of being a 1368 Sqn cadet and the Cadets have assisting in helping local charities and community events for many years. It was therefore nice to see our friends from Warwick Lion's Club, who popped by to see our fresh batch of dummies, the inflatable 'Resusci Annie' type, they bought for the Squadron to help us to train up cadets to provide service to the community and, who knows, maybe someday save a life (also useful as some of the Squadron staff are very old).

One of the ethos' of 1368 is to engage in sports activities throughout the year, promoting the benefits of keeping fit to bolster self-esteem and personal improvement, and having fun outside with friends (and getting your DofE Physical done). We recently did some athletics training, where we learnt that 14 year old cadets can run faster than really old people (at sprinting, at least). Also learnt that we have a staff member with what can be described as "a monster" of a shot put throw. 

Squadron has 8 cadets undertaking Bronze, 12 at Silver, and 6 at Gold. Well done to Cdt R who navigated their way into achieving their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award, soon to be followed up with a Silver, no doubt.  The Royal Air Force Air Cadets is one of the largest operating authorities of the DofE Scheme. Its ethos aligns to those of the Air Cadets:. Respect: Self and Mutual Respect. Integrity: Integrity Always. Service: Service Before Self. Excellence: Striving for Excellence. Cadets can start DofE Bronze if they turn 14 in their current school year and join with peers. Costs of doing DofE with the RAFAC organisation are kept very low by avoiding paying for commercial provision of expeditions and central funding of cadets' enrollment fees, if they pass.