Windermere School’s Elleray Campus recently hosted the school’s inaugural Inter-Schools’ Junior Orienteering Event.
Over 200 pupils from Elleray, St. Oswald’s, St. Mark’s, Staveley and Levens set about testing their map-reading skills and cross-country running ability.
As this was a new event, two separate courses were set up. The ‘Star Course’ was the beginners’ course, designed to give those who had little, or no, experience in orienteering the opportunity to get to grips with the basics of the sport. For many, it was a stepping stone to the more intricate ‘Map Course’, where pupils ventured solo into the extended Elleray grounds, as they searched for seventeen different stations.
Armed with maps and electronic tracking devices, the pupils were given approximately three-quarters of an hour to find as many of the seventeen stations as possible. The course proved to be a tough one as pupils ran up and down several steep hills, negotiating wooded areas, gates and muddy fields, with only a map as guidance.
On their return, each pupil was given a printed copy of their arrival times at each checkpoint and their overall time. For many, this was their first taste of orienteering, but the event was a huge success.
Mrs Whitehead, Head of Physical Education at Elleray, said: “The children have had a fantastic time taking part in today’s orienteering challenge. It is a tough course, but they’ve navigated it well and many of them have found most of the seventeen stations.
“A huge thank you must go to Mr Reedy for organising the course, as well as for providing instructions for the pupils and for helping them to evaluate their success rate. This was the first year we’ve hosted an Orienteering Challenge, but it’s been a great success and hopefully we can host it again in the years to come.”