Orienteering in Schools

British Orienteering has been supporting National Schools Sports Week by providing a wide range of free orienteering resources for schools to download and for students to take part in!

Orienteering is an outdoor activity that can be delivered safely in schools, can be delivered COVID-secure, and develop a young person’s confidence and the ability to make decisions.

We know how important sport and physical activity is in playing a vital role in children’s recovery, who have had their world’s turned upside down in the last year.

Orienteering has a lot to offer in terms of raising achievement and numeracy and is great for meeting the developmental needs, both physically and mentally, for pupils. Orienteering is also a cross-curricular activity that can support subjects such as Maths, PE and Geography.

How can British Orienteering best support your school?

If you are a member of staff at a school we would be grateful if you could please spare 5-10 minutes to complete our short questionnaire which will help British Orienteering find out how best we can support schools deliver an Orienteering programme of lessons / activities.
Please take the survey here.

eLearning Courses for School Teachers

Courses available:

• E-Learning 'Introducing Orienteering' Course for Primary School Teachers
  Introducing Orienteering has been designed to be the first step on the Orienteering leadership pathway and aims to equip Primary school teachers and outdoor leaders with the knowledge and confidence to introduce Orienteering within their setting.
  To access the course, click here
• E-Learning 'Introducing Orienteering for Secondary Schools' Course
  Introducing Orienteering for secondary schools has been designed to be the first step on the Orienteering leadership pathway and aims to equip secondary school teachers and leaders with the knowledge and confidence to introduce Orienteering within their setting.
  
  Orienteering can be used in many ways across a school setting to develop student’s confidence, resilience and knowledge, a greater understanding of how to develop and maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. As well as leading to further on-going local opportunities across the Orienteering community. To access the course, click here

Other Teaching Orienteering Courses include:

• Teaching Orienteering Part 1
• Teaching Orienteering Part 2
• Young Leader Award

Full details of these courses can be found here.

British Orienteering School Site Mapping Support

Do you want to get your School site professionally mapped for Orienteering? You could set up your own Permanent Orienteering Course or purchase your own kites to set up your own courses as a great activity.

• British Orienteering will arrange for a specialist school orienteering mapper to be deployed to your site to produce a computer-generated accurate and professional-looking map in a PDF format.
• You just need to decide on the area to be mapped. In most cases, this will be your school site.
• British Orienteering will then mutually agree to the timescales to complete the mapping, typically the lead time is 4 weeks.

Prices start at £600 including VAT depending on the size and complexity of your site.
School maps will take at least 1 day for surveying and 1 day for the cartography.
Find out more by contacting Howard Blackman by emailing: hblackman@britishorienteering.org.uk or 07768 334207.

Resources for Schools

British Orienteering have the perfect challenges for students to take part in!

Resources for orienteering in schools are available from The British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA) and Bishop Sport and Leisure. Please click on the respective links in the text to see the resources they supply.

Have you heard about Xplorer Schools?
Developed by British Orienteering to introduce orienteering to Primary Schools in an innovative and non-traditional way.  Find out more here.

Schools Games Resources
British Orienteering have worked alongside the School Games to develop a new set of free orienteering resources to help in the recovery of getting children back active and giving them positive experiences in sport.

From Pitch Orienteering that takes place on a standard football pitch to the traditional Orienteering Score Competition - the formats are simplified, progressive and varied so can provide a fun and exciting introduction to the sport of orienteering.

Check out these eight free resources on the links below:

For Primary Schools

• Your School Games - Orienteering - Counting Cones
  Orienteering: Counting Cones is an active and inclusive activity to help children to gain an understanding of map reading skills in orienteering.
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Netball numbers
  Orienteering: Netball numbers is a fast paced, competitive introduction to orienteering, based upon map reading and orientation skills.
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Score competition
  Orienteering: Score competition is an orienteering event that involves children visiting as many controls as possible on a map, in an allotted time.
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Matching Symbols Relay
  Orienteering: Matching Symbols Relay is a fast and easy introduction to basic orienteering symbols through a fun team relay game!
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Tri-O - Introductory activities.
  Orienteering: Tri-O package of Introductory orienteering activities.

For Secondary Schools

• Your School Games - Orienteering - Pitch 'O'
  Orienteering: Pitch 'O' or pitch Orienteering is a competitive relay type activity mapped across a football pitch.
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Score competition
  Orienteering: Score competition is a fun individual orienteering activity that involves players visiting as many controls as they can in an allotted time.
• Your School Games - Orienteering - Two person star relay
  Orienteering: Two-person star relay is an interactive and fun team orienteering competition where pupils run to mapped control sites from a central starting point.

Find out more about the School Games here and how your school can get involved.

Permanent and Virtual (GPS) Oriernteering Courses

Permanent Orienteering and Virtual Orienteering Courses are located across the UK. They provide an excellent opportunity to experience Orienteering at one of your local parks. Find out more here.

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Your local club

Many local orienteering clubs run regular coaching sessions, often at mid-week club nights’, or on weekends. If you want to talk about how you can experience orienteering or how you can get involved. Find your local orienteering club here.

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https://twitter.com/gbrorienteering
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info@britishorienteering.org.uk