Schools Orienteering

Orienteering is a fantastic activity for schools to enrich your PE and Outdoor Learning curriculum. If you are interested to find out more about orienteering, the best place to start is the British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA). Here you will find a wealth of information and resources, as well as details of national competitions for schools. You can also join BSOA for free.

Border Liners Orienteering Club has a long history of working with schools through John and Pam Roelich who are both now retired from this role. Jane Yates took over this voluntary role as Schools and Youth Officer in 2018 after a long gap. With Club Coach, Christine Kiddier, they have been keen to build up opportunities for schools, and also for individual juniors as part of the athlete pathway. Over the years, we have many juniors who have been part of the North-West Junior Squad and one of our older juniors is part of the GB Talent North Squad. We are very proud of BL member Ruben Razzetti who also won a Rising Star Award in 2021 in the Active Cumbria Sports Awards.

We are currently working with Eden Valley Sports Partnership (EVSP) to deliver an inter-schools competition at Hackthorpe Woods in March, and we are involved in the Schools Games in July. Recently, we provided a 2-hour training session for EVSP teachers at Hackthorpe New Wood.

Border Liners are currently developing a number of permanent orienteering courses (POC) in the Carlisle area. So far, there are courses at Talkin Tarn and Rickerby Park which make a perfect school outing. Please see our POC section of the website.

On Saturdays (usually every month or so) we hold a local event which is perfect for beginners to experience orienteering. Unless specified, these events always have a Yellow course which is suitable for primary pupils and beginner orienteers. While we prefer it if competitors enter online, there is entry on the day (EOD) for Yellow courses. We encourage you to share our events with your school community via newsletters or emails. Please see our events page for details.

In 2019 and 2020, we started a school series at our Saturday events and we hope to re-instate this in due course.

New Training for Teachers

Please contact Jane Yates if you are interested to attend the British Orienteering Teaching Orienteering Part 1. This training delivers the knowledge, understanding and practical ability to teach the basic skills of orienteering. Anyone over the age of 16 can attend the course. The one-day training will be offered to teachers at Talkin Tarn in the summer term. Training and resource fees apply.

Keep in touch

Please sign up to our schools’ bulletin for upcoming information about orienteering for schools.

Jane Yates Schools and Youth Officer (voluntary) and Welfare Officer for Border Liners Orienteering Club

Contact details: jane-orienteering-bl@outlook.com