Words by Ematice Mokhtari (Lower Sixth), Photograph of Beth Mortimer (Upper Sixth)

During the first week of half term Bedford Girls’ School and Bedford School Combined Cadet Force (CCF) members embarked on a trip to the Isle of Wight for their annual Adventure Training mission.

The Navy section began in Portsmouth on-board The Amaryllis, a 38 ft sail training craft. Learning how to sail such a magnificent yacht depended entirely on the group’s teamwork, with actions to be carried out simultaneously in order to ensure that we remained on our designated route.

Early Sunday morning we set off for Yarmouth; battling with extremely wet and windy conditions.

For the second activity we stayed at the Jersey recruitment camp, walking a total of 20 miles around the coast of the Island on a very hilly path.

The week finished by returning to Portsmouth where we stayed on HMS Bristol.

We visited the Mary Rose Museum and were given an insight to the Tudor ship which sank off the coast of Portsmouth. Before our departure we had the opportunity to hear about the role of a Ministry of Defence police officer.

The trip concluded at HMS Collingwood for a morning of team building and leadership activities, where we began with a short low ropes course during which leadership and communication proved to be of significant importance, when discussing the most effective way of getting round the course successfully. We then finished by completing the gruelling assault course.