at the Wiltshire and Swindon School Games this summer! Written by: Liz Yeadon & Ken Stimson


Orienteering


Orienteering was included as a sport for years 5/6 for the first time at both the Wiltshire and Swindon Schools Games this summer – the Swindon Games were held at Lydiard Park & the Wiltshire Games were held at Marlborough College. Both events ran very successfully.


The Swindon event, at the end of June, hosted 6 schools, in rather damp conditions, with teams of 10 children, running


in pairs, each pair doing a slightly different course to enhance the competition. They all had a chance to try a small practice course before their event which helped with their navigation on their competition course.


At Marlborough College, in early July, 12 teams were scheduled to take part of which 10 attended – this time during a heat wave! The Schools came from Salisbury, Avon Valley and Warminster Schools. All had taken part in Heats held beforehand during June. Again, there were teams of 10 children, in pairs with each pair doing a slightly different course.


The children at both events all competed with great enthusiasm and all seemed to really enjoy the


occasions and were so proud to be there, taking part!


Orienteering is so good at creating an atmosphere of inclusivity – it can foster both team work & independent thought; it highlights spatial and reasoning skills and, although speed can be important, slower participants can often succeed by taking care & concentrating on the task.


The two Wiltshire Orienteering Clubs, Sarum Orienteering Club and North Wiltshire Orienteers worked closely together on the two main events and also collaborated with the pre- event activities throughout the year, to get this venture off the ground. It has been really heartening to see children progress from Orienteering activities in their own schools through to Heats in Forest or Park conditions to the Finals. The competitions are based on British Orienteering Rules which were given to every school taking part.


Both Orienteering Clubs are keen to work with local clusters of schools, and are also able to offer training sessions for groups of teachers to enable schools to introduce orienteering into their curriculum for all school years and to do their own initial preparation leading to Heats in the Summer in preparation for


next year’s Games – both in Swindon & in the rest of Wiltshire.


This all needs to be timetabled well in advance, as all of the Orienteering Club members are volunteers, so:


 If your school is interested in taking part next year, please contact your Area Sports Co- ordinator; then the Orienteering Clubs will arrange to hold the Heats in May/ June next year;


 If you would like the teachers in your local cluster to have some orienteering familiarisation training, please contact one of the Orienteering Club representatives as follows: -


Liz Yeadon


(Sarum Orienteering Club) fixtures@sarumo.org.uk covering Salisbury;


West Wilts & Avon Valley Ken Stimson


(NWO - North Wilts


Orienteering Club) – covering Swindon & Mid Wilts


kenstimson@btinternet.com


Wiltshire and Swindon Relay 7


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