We’re turning our focus on to CFAVs and the amazing work they do to help create and run our CCF Contingents. We recently spoke with Captain Mathew Owen, Caterham School CCF (Army), who as well as being a Classics Teacher and Assistant Housemaster, has dedicated the past 15 years to volunteering within his school’s CCF. We met up with Captain Owen to ask him about what he enjoys most about the CCF and why others should consider volunteering.
How long have you worked with the CCF and what made you want to join?
I’ve worked with the CCF for the past 15 years. I joined because I absolutely loved it as a schoolboy and I was very keen to get involved as soon as I became a teacher. I knew first-hand how much I had benefited from being a cadet – the CCF memories and friendships are amongst the warmest and longest-lived of my own school days and I was keen to help the next generation benefit from it too. As a cadet, I remember seeing the fun and camaraderie that the CFAVs always seemed to have and share together, and I looked forward to being a part of that myself.
What do you consider to be the most rewarding part of leading a CCF contingent?
Undoubtedly seeing cadets thrive in challenging environments and watching them develop as people. It is hard to describe the pride and admiration one feels for young people, especially of a generation that is sometimes written off as being too dependent. Seeing the cadets overcome whatever is thrown at them – late nights, early mornings, cold, rain, exhaustion, demands for high standards and daunting challenges – and they do it all with a smile of relish on their faces!
I also think seeing and assisting in the growth of young people during five formative years of their school life and development is extremely rewarding. Watching how a timid, little 13 year old cadet who is tearful and homesick on his first night away with us become in five short years (and the blink of an eye) a Master Cadet who is proud of themselves and can confidently instruct his juniors; attend events where he meets the Royal Family, as well getting to experience jumping out of an aircraft, competing in national competitions and addressing a full auditorium of parents, standing there confidently as a self-assured young adult, is just an inexhaustible supply of inspiration.
I feel very strongly that the cadet movement has such a great focus on values – values that have sometimes been a little neglected in the civilian education world. Moral, physical courage, hardiness, self-resilience, leadership and pride in oneself, one’s contingent, school and country. I find this very uplifting.
