This was not the start to a new decade the Squadron was expecting and turned out to be one of the biggest changes of operating in the Squadrons and organisations history.
The year started as any other, with the Squadron running courses, camps and attending AEF and sporting events. The Squadron’s last events before the first COVID lock down, were the passout parade of number 65 Entry and a Bronze DofE training walk. Flt Sgt Emily Holmes was also promoted to CWO by Wing Commander O’Riley.
As the UK began a National Lockdown due to COVID-19, all face to face cadet training was of course stopped. The Squadron did carry on though, skipping one parade night for staff planning and then resuming parades online, including weekly sports sessions, which continued throughout 2020 and into 2021.
Parade highlights included running an online Fairbourne camp, with promotional videos (see below) and lots of activities ran by our NCO team.
Further, the Squadron ran an online enrolment for No 66 Entry and a live streamed presentation evening, as well as keeping up with other routine activities, such as NCO promotions.
Towards the end of the year, the Squadron did briefly get back to face to face activity and managed to parade around 100 cadets during October, with fieldcraft, leadership, teambuilding and first aid activities and training. Some cadets were also able to continue their Gold canoe DofE training sessions