Good morning little miss beth. ( and team ) I hope its ok I post :0)
As the founder of Commando Joe's I would love to explain our ethos and my vision for our organisation and hopefully put your reservations and mind at rest. :0) I set up CJ's after being in the military for 8 years, I loved the Army however I got to the point where I missed home and family. Before I left I worked on a team which delivered sessions into schools ( Secondary ).
Pupils , staff and SLT loved the sessions on teamwork and communication skills , however i felt that it was promoting the military to much and didn't give a rounded view on joining the Military. I was a personal trainer and a royal engineer. My role was to help rebuild villages and help with water supply in countries which did not have that capability.
I left the military and lectured for 3 years and gained a Cert Ed. The military gave me some amazing skills, confidence , teamwork, smartness, leadership , ambition, resilience , character, boosted my self esteem and values that are not military but just good to have in life.
Most our of staff are ex -military but we have 15 who are not and they go through a 6 week training programme that they must pass. We have interviewed over 800 people for 50 jobs .Not every ex-military person has the aptitude or skill set to help young people and we only employ the very best staff who can inspire young people to achieve whatever it is they want to do.
We never sign post anyone to the military and my staff know if they ever do, it is a sackable offence.Our ethos is No Child Left Behind , so pupils who don't normally excel in physical activity or team games and tasks, get the chance to be at the front and develop. Every school use's us in a different way and I'm trying so hard to get away from the " Can we use you for bad behaviour" Thats not what we do and it doesn't work. Low ability , middle ability and gifted and talented pupils all should get access to any great provision.
It about working with the whole school, every pupil should have the chance to see Commando Joe or Jane and work on fun tasks and guided reading sessions. We are quite different to any other provider as our programme is reward based so pupils need to do well to come to our sessions. ( Thats just good school values of listening on class and trying trying hard and never giving up).
I really do understand your reservations as i have a 3 year old daughter myself and if i was in your position I would be asking the exact same questions.I think in this case we could of or the school could have told parents what the programme was about and what we wanted to acheive by support pupils , parents and teachers . Our own communication doesn't sound to great on this one !
We are just looking at changing our combats and boots from British military to our own camouflage. Our idea is that it will help us not to be perceived as a military ethos but a commando joes and school ethos. As that is such a far cry from what we do. We are currently working in over 300 schools with 60k young people and the schools ask us to come and work with them. We are looking at running a competition for the pupils, we would like them to design our uniform and what they think it should look like including our ethos. Help each other and ourselves in school and the community through -Teamwork , Resilience, Character , Communication and Health and wellbeing.
If I may suggest that you speak to the instructor or the head and ask to come into school to watch a session ? You will see how good our staff are with the pupils and how much they love the sessions. I hope this helps if i can help in any way please let me know. Thank you Mike