Back in June, Scottish Orienteering was excited to announce the brand‑new Junior Volunteer Awards Scheme. A scheme created to recognise and encourage juniors who are taking their first steps into volunteering. Juniors can be nominated for volunteering in four different categories; planning, organising coaching and IT/results/timing. These awards are not about being the best at a role — they are about having a go and learning! The winners of each category will be announced at the Junior interareas at the end of October. 

This scheme was first introduced as a points system whereby juniors could earn points each time they volunteered. The decision has been made to scrap this to avoid over-complicating it. Juniors can be nominated for one or more categories. To nominate a junior we just need their name and it would be helpful if you could provide a note of the volunteer tasks they have undertaken in the past year. Nominations can be made by; the junior, a coach, committee member, area squad official, club fixture secretary. 

We have had some fantastic trophies made up for the award and we hope presenting them at the interareas will encourage more juniors to try volunteering. 

Please contact heidi@scottish-orienteering.org to nominate a junior for one of these awards. Please have your nominations in by Sunday 25th October.

A team of 24 junior orienteers travelled to Switzerland last weekend to compete for GB in the Junior European Cup (JEC). Scotland was well represented on the team and the Scottish athletes provided some outstanding results – in particular Finn Duguid from TAY who won a gold medal in the M18 Sprint and a silver in the Long. Congratulations to Finn!

The SOA Team was delighted to welcome Holly Stodgell as she started in the post of SOA Development Officer this week. Holly has joined the SOA team as a replacement for Louise Adams who left the post of Development Officer in July.

SATPE stands for the Scottish Association of Teachers of Physical Education. Last weekend SOA attended their annual conference at Crieff High School to promote the sport to teachers as a sport they could introduce pupils to. The conference attracts PE teachers working at both primary and secondary level from across Scotland. As part of the conference SOA delivered a workshop and had a stall at the marketplace. 

The workshop aimed to introduce teachers to orienteering, giving them the confidence and resources to deliver in schools. The workshop introduced: what is a map, setting maps and using orienteering maps. At the marketplace teachers wanted to know about mapping, working with younger children, structuring lessons and more. 

At being at this conference we hope to get more orienteering into schools and more people participating in orienteering in Scotland! 

The Junior Interareas are right around the corner taking place over the weekend of 31 October – 1st November. Hosted by the East Area, there will be a relay event on Saturday at Vogrie and the Individual event on Sunday running in conjunction with the ELO SoSol. The interareas is a highlight of the junior calendar and we highly encourage juniors of all experience levels to go!

As an organisation we take our safeguarding obligations seriously. We believe that everyone should stay safe and have fun while orienteering! Safeguarding is not just about children but applies to everyone within the SOA.

Over the weekend a full team of 24 juniors and 4 coaches travelled to East Anglia for the Junior Inter Regional Championships (JIRCs). This annual event sees teams of juniors from all twelve British Orienteering Regions compete in individual races and relays whilst having the opportunity to socialise and build friendships with other junior orienteers from all over the United Kingdom.

In very uncharacteristic weather for the Scots with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 20s, the Scottish team were victorious in the individuals, relays and overall – returning with lots of silverware. Read on to find out more about their weekend.

It was announced by Jonathan Molloy at the SOA 2026 Annual General Meeting that the Service to Orienteering Award was being awarded to Janice Nisbet of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Association (ESOC). The Service to Orienteering Award was previously known as the President’s Award but following the re-organisation of the SOA Board and there being no current President, it has been renamed as the Service to Orienteering Award.

The 2026 Veteran Home Internationals took place down in the Peak District last weekend (19th/20th September) and saw Scotland finishing in third position despite being a very close run thing overnight after the individuals. The date of the VHIs was brought forward to the end of September this year from its normal late October position. This meant that it clashed with Coast and Islands, children starting university and the London City Race among other things.

Our September Community Conversation had a theme of using Permanent Orienteering Courses (‘POCs’) to encourage and widen participation, and saw good cross-club discussion with members on experience and ideas.   POCs have loads of potential as means of offering easy taster courses, quick-to-set-up training courses for club sessions), and self-serve ways for individuals to practice skills and progress.  What can help clubs make best use of them to support orienteering development work?