How Schools Embraced the Scottish Schools Festival

The Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival once again proved why it has become such a valued date in the school sports calendar. Over 300 pupils attended the event at Beecraigs, described as a ‘great day out’ by pupils and teachers alike. Falkirk High School attended for the first time this year, and their experience captured exactly what makes the festival special. Anne Smith, Faculty Head of Health and School Sports Co‑ordinator, shared how meaningful the day was for her pupils:

“This was the first time we have attended this event, a link was sent through from our Active Schools team and as the Faculty Head of Health and School Sports Co-ordinator I like to give our pupils an opportunity to compete in a number of activities outside the normal traditional sports that we have done well at. In recent years we have attended Scottish School Waterpolo and Duathlon and those both lead to school clubs  being developed and pupils competing locally and nationally. So, my martyr is always to give it a go. I was aware that pupils should have had experience before competing and those who signed up all stated that they had done some orienteering before either through local organisations like the scouts or our Outdoor Education teacher. However, naively I had not explored local opportunities to race before entering this event nonetheless the pupils were extremely keen and although a few pulled out before the day others would have liked to take part. 

On arrival at the event all the staff and volunteers were so helpful to myself and my pupils and went out their way to help and encourage them to do well. I was extremely impressed with the overall set up and professional standard of the course and the kindness of your volunteers to reassure pupils and help them with any questions they had before setting off. It gave the pupils confidence to give it a go even though I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the prospect and think that they had realised that maybe they were unprepared for this. Despite their reservation I was proud of the fact that they all took up their slot to compete and ran off with the courage to try their best. This in itself to me is a win to see pupils confidence to give it a go especially when the pupils from our school come from quite diverse backgrounds and experiences that often prevent them from trying new things outwith their comfortable zone or independently. Orienteering by its very nature forces both out of young people and therefore builds resilience and a sense of adventure. The pupils did find aspects of the activity difficult and all of them had a number of penalty points for collecting additional markers or not finding some key codes despite this they finished with a smile on their face and a sense of achievement, some were even keen to go again immediately cause they now felt they knew where they had gone wrong and what they needed to do now. We even managed with our S3 girls to win a silver team medal. I am confident we will be back, perhaps we need to look for more local opportunities to take part in races and I would love to get some orienteering back on the curriculum or as an extra curricular experience if we can get a more experienced coach to help build their skills. I have also  bought a whole primary school resource so our associate primary schools and potentially our S1 pupils can get involved in an activity that build Lifeskills and resilience in pupils. On behalf of our pupils thank you for your hardworking in creating this opportunity for pupils and being so supportive on the day. “

Stories like Falkirk High’s highlight the importance of the Scottish Schools Festival. Schools left not only with results and medals, but with a sense of achievement. Thanks again to all the volunteers and the Falkirk High School for sharing their experience with us.