Cadets etc - 17yo sharing a room wiith 18yo

[ElderAve]

Cadets changed their rules a while back so that rather than being able to stay until 18 y 9m, they now leave on their 18th birthday. This is because a 17yo (and 364 days) child can't share a room/tent with an 18yo (and one day) adult.

Is this logical, other than covering backs? Are 17yos at any real risk from their 18yo friends and if so, surely no different to the day before? i.e the safeguarding that protects them from each other at 17 should still apply?

What do schools do about trips in the upper sixth?

I don't know what cadets you're talking about but the cadets I know about have to have separate accommodation for under and over 18s for cadets and another set of accommodation for staff. Male and female cadets are accommodated separately too.

Surely this is a sensible precaution because an 18 yr old is an adult whereas under 18 they are not!?

This is Army cadets. Maybe it's only a local rule then but they said it's logistically too difficult to have separate accommodation for under and over 18 cadets, so now they leave on their 18th birthday.

The language school (residential) that I work for is the same.
17 years and 364 days- fine
18 on the dot- needs to go to the adult school.

It's not for safeguarding reasons though, it's for insurance purposes.

Line's got to be drawn somewhere.

We are actually in the process of having 18+ cadets again as "staff cadets", similar to the air cadets. While it doesn't make much sense that an 18yo and 17yo can't share the same room, I wouldn't think of it like that. Accommodation is usually in dorm rooms and it is difficult to separate them. Also in the room with that 17yo could be a 12yo.

If I was making the rules, I would just stick the 18yo cadets in with the adult staff as that makes the most sense from a legal perspective.