Last weekend, St Dunstan’s College’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF) took part in three major events across consecutive days.
The 150-strong cadet force led the College’s Remembrance Service, took part in the Lord Mayor’s Show and marched in Lewisham’s Remembrance Sunday Parade.

On Friday, the school community came together for the annual Remembrance Service. The CCF’s Corps of Drums led the service procession outside onto the crescent where the remaining cadets had lined up on the green. Members of the CCF were part of the wreath laying party and sixth former Nona, who is part of the Corps of Drums, played the Last Post.

A day later, the cadets were delighted to take part in one of London’s most spectacular events, the Lord Mayor’s Show.

The annual parade celebrates the incoming mayor’s inauguration and dates back to the 13th century. St Dunstan’s CCF were invited by our affiliated Livery Company the Worshipful Company of Marketors to take part in the show as part of their entry.

Our entry consisted of the Corps of Drums and a marching contingent of Royal Navy and Army cadets. This was the first public performance by the Corps of Drums for over two years and the cadets were understandably a little nervous.

Major Richard Davies explained: ‘Both the marching contingent and Corps of Drums were excellent throughout the entire day and represented both the CCF and the College to the highest of standards. Special mention goes to Drum Major Sales for her excellent leadership on the day, Lead Side Drummer Dixon for keeping us all in time when marching and Bass Drummer Foster who had the hardest job of the day, both playing and carrying a huge bass drum for the entire parade. A huge thank you to all the cadets and staff that helped make it such a fantastic day.’
St Dunstan’s Head, Nick Hewlett, also said: ‘Well done to all our cadets on superb form marching as part of the Lord Mayor’s Show. I’m particularly proud that the Lord Mayor, Nicholas Lyons, is also one of our governors.’
Following Saturday’s march through the City of London, there was no time to rest for the cadets. More than 50 cadets joined the community in Lewisham’s annual Remembrance Sunday Parade, which was followed by laying wreaths alongside the Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan.

Speaking about the CCF’s success, Major Richard Davies paid tribute to the cadets’ enthusiasm: ‘I’m very proud of the commitment and dedication from the cadets and our staff. The balance we strike within our cadet experience of the cadets being challenged, developing new skills and having fun is what we believe makes us so successful. We expect high standards from our cadets, and we are fortunate to have the wealth of experience from our staff body. Six of the staff have been awarded the cadet forces’ long service medal and we have five staff with previous military experience.’
Earlier this year, St Dunstan’s College was named Independent Senior School of the Year at the Tes Awards, which are known as the Oscars of education.