When Royal Air Force Air Cadets Sophie Ross, Hollie Farmer, Jordan Tolley and Shaun Hadley of 121 (Nuneaton) Squadron received their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, they and the rest of their Squadron definitely had something to smile about.
Not only had Sophie, Hollie, Jordan and Shaun managed to achieve their own personal goal of completing the Bronze Award programme but they also managed to push the Squadron’s total for the D of E qualifying year to Nine Bronze Awards.
Over the last year a total of Nine Nuneaton based Air Cadets have completed the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
During the challenging six month Bronze D of E programme of activities designed to test their teamwork, perseverance and confidence the cadets had to complete four sections, Volunteering, Physical, Skills and a two day (one night) Expedition.
Flight Lieutenant Paul Hincks, Officer Commanding 121 (Nuneaton) Squadron said, “We have been trying to improve our performance in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Scheme for many years but for all sorts of reasons we were unable to do so. However, this year, thanks to the outstanding efforts of the cadets involved and indeed the supervising staff we have successfully managed to get an outstanding number of Nine cadets through their Bronze level awards.”
“We now need to keep the momentum going over the next twelve months and get even more cadets through their Bronze Awards and see if we can convert some of this year’s Bronzes into Silver Awards.”
Flight Lieutenant Hincks concluded, “The Duke of Edinburgh’s Scheme is an extremely challenging activity for the cadets, however, as with all of our activities, without the dedication and commitment of the supervising staff we couldn’t have achieved such good results. To that end I would take this opportunity to thank our D of E coordinator, Civilian Instructor Karl Whopples and the staff of both my own unit and those from 198 Squadron with whom we have conducted joint expeditions, for their efforts in helping nine of our cadets to achieve their Bronze Awards.”