LAST Friday, Bury Grammar School’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF) underwent their biennial inspection.

This is more ceremonial than compliance as much of the hard work has been carried out behind the scenes to ensure that the CCF is fit for purpose by the Contingent Commander and his team before the event.

Friday was very much about putting the CCF on show and being proud.

And indeed, we were all very proud. It was about being proud of something very special and something which is right at the heart of Bury Grammar School.

Proud to know that many of the Old Boys who died in the First and Second World War, our Fallen Swans as they have come to be known in recent years, were also members of the Bury Grammar School CCF.

I often tell the pupils that when they wear the uniform and the badge to remember that they are also honouring their memory and not to do so lightly.

But it was also a proud day for the inspecting officer, Lt Col Catherine Masling.

Catherine was extremely proud to be inspecting our cadets. As she inspected, I counted six medals on her uniform ­— some of them with bars.

She is a highly decorated senior Army officer responsible for commanding hundreds of men and women in sometimes extremely dangerous theatres of operation. So why was she so proud to have been inspecting our combined cadet force?

Well, because Catherine is an Old Girl of the school who made history. Catherine was the first girl to join the BGS CCF back in 1992. And for some time, she was the only girl to be part of the CCF.

That takes guts and courage, to buck the trend, to put yourself out there, to put yourself potentially out there to fail but to have a go anyway.

This is absolutely what having a Bury Grammar School education and indeed any education should be about: providing confidence to youngsters to make a change for the better.

Had Catherine not had such a mindset she would probably not have taken the risk to join the CCF all those years ago and would also probably not have enjoyed a full and satisfying career in the Army.

It is right and fitting that a week after International Women’s Day, we were inspected by the first female cadet to join our CCF. A former BGS pupil leading the way in a male-dominated institution that is the Army.

It is a lesson to us all that we should instil in our children the importance of courage, to have a go and to not allow anyone to hold you back.