NEWS Winter '09 - Strathallan School

8 www.strathallan.co.uk
Army Section
Dinner
A super evening was enjoyed by cadets
and staff from the Army Section of the
School’s CCF when it hosted its annual
dinner this term.
Meet the Marines
Cadets from Strathallan’s three CCF units, The Royal Marines, The Royal
Navy and The Army Section enjoyed an action packed day of abseiling,
rock climbing, unarmed combat and aerial slide over the pond with
The Royal Marines Commando Display Team.
The team headed up by Captain Ryan Kyle consists of 23 Royal Marines Commandos
who spend six months travelling the length of the British Isles to raise the profile of the
Corps and encourage young men to consider a career as a Royal Marine.
This term the team spent three days at Strathallan giving schools and youth organisations
from all over Scotland a chance to participate in the challenging activities and also
to discuss career options with recruitment officers from both the Royal Navy and The
Royal Marines.
The children thrived on the teamwork required and remained cheerful throughout the
day, even when dunked in the pond.
The CCF day ended with a display of Unarmed Combat, a highly disciplined method
of hand-to-hand fighting, which is taught to all Royal Marines for use in active service
conditions. Not for the faint hearted!
Lamsden Zulu
Mr Lamsden Zulu, Director of Planning,
Choma Municipal Council, Zambia has
been attached to Perth & Kinross planning
department for the last two months and
came to the School to address the pupils
at Chapel. Mr Zulu spoke of his work,
providing education for HIV/Aids orphans
in his native home of Zambia and was
presented with a cheque towards his
good work.
Community Service
Over the past few weeks Fourth Form pupils doing Public Service have been
participating in a series of activities to work towards achieving the John Muir Award.
The students completed various activities including observation of natural environments
at Kinnoull Hill, Lochore Meadows and Scout Law, and coppicing at Harran Hill Woods,
near Lochore.
“The Forest rangers explained to us what coppicing was and how to use the tools.
Every seven years, young trees are harvested so that the wood is quite malleable and
can be woven to make fences. The stumps are left to regrow. When the students
arrived, the Rangers had already felled a number of trees and they spent the first week
using pruning saws and loppers to strip the branches and pile up the thin trunks of birch
and hazel. Once most of the trees had been processed, a couple of pupils were able to
don hard hats and try their hand at felling trees, and on return visits the pupils fell into
an easy pattern of felling, stripping branches and collecting the timber. The smaller
branches ended up on a large bonfire, and Dallas, one of the Rangers, even produced
some sparklers for us.”