World Orienteering Week

Last week was World Orienteering which aims to increase the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people. We are very proud that Scottish clubs held 33 events and activities across Scotland increasing the visibility of the sport. This included a Scout Orienteering Festival, parkrun takeovers, schools tasters and coaching aimed at adult beginners, alongside events. In this article we highlight a few of the activities that happened throughout the week

David Robertson (ESOC) has been busy running school activities at Dalmeny Primary. The session helped to inspire pupils to try orienteering outside of schools. 

“Our recent orienteering sessions for P1–P7 pupils were a fantastic success. The children found them both fun and useful, with many feeling inspired to try orienteering outside of school. The sessions were really well differentiated to suit the different age groups, ensuring everyone was engaged and challenged appropriately. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have already asked for more sessions in school. Huge thanks to our leader, David, for delivering such high-quality, motivating activities!” Sarah Brewster- Teacher

“I liked using the dibber and I liked getting to do the tricker challenge.” P3 pupil

“I liked using the dibber to check my score and the cone game.” P3 Pupil

“The games were fun and made us think. It was fun having to progress through each map.” P4 Pupil.

Thanks David for running the session. The resources used during the session look fantastic!

Gramp have also been busy with world orienteering week holding a parkrun takeover, an adult beginners taster session and a local event at Aden Country Park. The adult beginners taster session took place at Hazlehead attracting over 30 people. Some of those who attended heard about the session from the parkrun takeover the weekend before. Feedback included: 

“Friendly, fun, inclusive”

“Would be keen to join some of the grampian summer series dates”

Hopefully some of the participants will come along to Gramps Wednesday evening summer series. 

At Aden Country Park Sean O’Sullivan (MAROC) organised the Grampian region Scout orienteering championship. Sean reports back on how the championship went:

“The Scout competition at Aden Country Park went very well, culminating in 18 x Scouts competing on a score course on a sunny day – smiles all around.  The Scouts got straight into a maze set up by Gramp and got very competitive very quickly.  The venue worked well as we were quite close to a play park, so the Scouts could let their hair down too. 14 of the Scouts had never done a proper event or used SI before and while the experienced Scouts did better, none of them got all the controls, so there is still room for improvement.  The Scout leaders expressed interest in doing the competition again next year and obtained orienteering maps for areas close to their base, so they can run their own training.” 

Scouts said ‘it was good fun to race against other groups’.

The championship was the final part of a project, that was supported by an IntrO course for leaders (5 Scout leaders attended in March), and a training event in Alford in April, for Scouts, which had about 23 attendees.

Thanks again to everyone who organised activities during World Orienteering Week. It was great to see so many activities happening.