Here’s What Happened When We Took The Whole School Out

How did we manage to get Ejaaz stuck in a flight simulator and Jack and Viren launching a rescue of a teacher? Field Day, that’s how!

 

Catching up with Mr Simm, our Director of Co-curricular, we learnt:

 

‘Field Day began to give CCF the chance to develop their skills off site. That’s how it started many years ago. Because we took those boys off site, we thought we needed to expand it!’ 

Examples of trips we ran this year included:

• The RAF Trip to Holton Base

• The Year 8 Trip to Bletchley Park

• The Army Trip to Bramley Camp

• The Year 9 Event on Gaming

• The Year 7 Trip to the Tower of London

 

So join us as we follow three of our sections on their various activities. 

Ejaaz 

Ejaaz is nowhere to be seen, but in front of his Flight Group, a simulator tilts up at an alarming angle. Somewhere deep inside, we can hear him shouting. 

 

The machine Ejaaz is flying is in fact the Link D4, one of the very first flight simulators designed for pilots. Its main purpose was that of disorientation and confusion. As Ejaaz explains, stumbling out of the cockpit:

 

‘The whole thing closes around and you’re in darkness. You then have to rely on your instruments to fly. This was a big thing in the war, because disorientation was common.’ 

 

Before arriving at RAF Holton, Ejaaz had spent the earlier morning leading his team through Wendover Woods, hiking his way through the various checkpoints against rival teams, and doing his best to read a compass. 

Passing the role of navigator around the junior members of his team, he looked to develop their team-work abilities, leadership skills and map-reading. As luck would have it, his team were pretty successful.

 

‘Our flight came first, we won! There was another flight which got more checkpoints, but because they were very late, they got time penalties. We got the chocolates.’

 

A future medic considering a career as a Medical Officer, we left Ejaaz (still talking to the museum attendant) to catch up with Jack and Viren. 

 

It’s cold, there’s mud everywhere, and Jack’s lying in a ditch. He’s also having the time of his life. 

 

The story goes that a member of staff has been kidnapped by the Sixth Form, who are holding him hostage. Jack’s section has been ordered to survey the Sixth Form positions. Nearby, the voices of the opposition can be heard revealing vital information.

 

Jack needs to work out whether they attack left or right. The success of the Recon Patrol could depend on this … fast forward a few hours and another dilemma is presented to our young cadet. Now his section has to put up camp … in total silence. 

 

‘We set up our first harbour but had to do it in darkness. We formed a triangle, set up sentry duties, and put up our bashers. We really had to trust each other, trust we were doing the right

things.’

 

His friend Viren agrees, although found the field signals more challenging than the shelter exercise. However, what he really wants to talk about is the paintballing.

 

‘It was great to do it with others and learn to surround them. We learnt caterpillar movement and leapfrog. Leapfrog is when one person runs up to find a position of cover, and then provides cover for the other person to move.’

 

Before we got splattered with paint, we decided to leave Jack and Viren to their ditch, and instead move back to the leafy grounds of Elstree. 

Kairav’s sitting in the Aske Hall listening to a talk on gaming addiction and following the science of the talk attentively. 

 

‘Gaming stimulates the brain in a different way to working. When you work, you have a task or goal you’re working towards to complete it to the best of your ability. In gaming, there’s escapism, you’re doing totally different things than you would in reality.’

 

A graph appears on the screen, showing how after a certain point, concentration and focus decrease with game time. Fortunately, Kairav’s had the chance to get outside earlier in the day with the range of multi-sports on offer. His favourite was lacrosse:

 

‘It was completely new and different. It’s like hockey in the air using nets. My hockey skills helped, but you have to control the ball mid-air. We didn’t play competitively but we all had a good game, it was really fun.’

As the graph animates to highlight peaks and troughs, we decide to leave Kairan to his lecture and end the day with a quick reflection. 

 

However hard we work, Habs boys know how to play hard too.

 

Outdoor education, personal and social education, history and heritage – an appreciation of these qualities is essential to a modern education. 

 

Sometimes, as with Field Day, this means leaving the classroom behind.