Schools Reflect on the 2025 Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival

By Louise Adams – SOA Development Officer

The 2025 Scottish Schools Orienteering Festival brought together over 350 pupils from across the country for a day of activity, adventure, and fun. This year, we invited schools to share their own reflections on the event — from training and preparation to the experience on the day itself. Read on to hear from two schools who took part.

George Heriot’s School

With thanks to Elspeth Bleakley.

“When I put out a sign up notice/email, we actually got well over 100 people signing up. So I needed to make sure that those who came were decently trained. I said they all had to come to one in school training and complete at least two courses outside school, ideally at a live event but otherwise an “anytime” course. I sent details of all local events between the sign up date and SSOF plus various permanent courses and MapRun courses to both the parents and pupils. This requirement cut the numbers down over the next few weeks to a more manageable number (still 71 pupils!!!) and meant those that did come had had a good amount of practice.

I usually hold one in school training event in the school grounds but this year had to hold two due to numbers – one for juniors and one for seniors. One of my S6 girls has done her coaching qualification so was a great help and a friend of mine from Interlopers, Katherine Ivory, planned courses for us. I also used the same courses for a session with my brownies (I’m a brownie leader) a few weeks earlier!

The two most popular events that Herioters went to were Dalkeith Country Park (run by ESOC) and Whitekirk Hill (ELO) and they were a large proportion of the entries at both events, but they also attended a wide variety of other events. I’ve had a lot of enthusiastic parents commenting how much they’d enjoyed the events and how welcoming they were. I plan to send details of future events to all those who came to keep the interest and momentum up between now and the British Schools. I will also hold further sessions at school after the summer.

On the actual day, all of us had a great time, from those who’d only recently started orienteering to those who’d been several times before and everyone in between. The staff have also commented how well organised and fun it was and all are volunteering to come again.

We’ll definitely be at British Schools – they’re all super keen! Thanks to whole team for organising. I know what a big effort it is and we’re very grateful.”

Preston Street Primary School

With thanks to Simon MacLean.

“We have attended the SSOF on a yearly basis since June 2019. It is always a motivating context for learning for our young people and we encourage as many children as possible across P5-7 to participate. We subsidise free transport and entry fees for pupils who are eligible for free school meals, and/or at risk of financial hardship, to ensure that everyone who wishes to attend is able to do so.

This year, we had almost 30% of our P5-7 roll taking part, which was a great number.

We have placed orienteering into the P5-7 outdoor learning curriculum, with the following progression:

• Introduction, using grid-based games in the school playground
• Temporary courses at the Meadows, our local park – this is a good introduction to orienteering as it is a location which all pupils know very well, and so it allows pupils to learn the basis such as ‘setting’ their map and using path layouts and familiar landmarks to help them navigate.
• Temporary courses at Holyrood Park – a location which is slightly more challenging and less familiar, but still easily accessible to pupils
• Easier permanent courses in local parks such as Braidburn Valley
• Permanent courses at Hermitage of Braid (Blackford Hill) and Bonaly – significantly more challenging due to the more difficult terrain and unfamiliar context
• Compass work and using landmarks to navigate on areas such as the Braids (compass work is part of the Curriculum for Excellence)

This ensures that pupils all have a basic understanding before they enter the competition.

We are fortunate enough to have developed a number of local contacts who offer assistance in planning and supervising orienteering events. This includes representatives of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club, Edinburgh University Orienteering Club and Scottish Orienteering.

Our pupils came back delighted about this year’s competition, and our P7 pupils were very proud of their bronze team medals in the boys’ and girls’ school events!

We are very grateful to the Scottish Schools Orienteering Association for putting on such a fun and inclusive event every year. Orienteering in general, and entry into the Festival in particular, has been a real confidence boost for many of our young people and we are excited for the British Schools event in November.”