New orienteering competition a great success

The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted its first ever orienteering competition and the event was a great success. 120 children from eleven schools took part in the event which was open to children in years 3 & 4 and aimed at those that don’t normally get a chance to represent their school in sporting competitions.

Mixed teams of 3 took part in three different challenges including a team score competition, netball numbers and find the school games sports. Each challenge involved teamwork and communication as well as running to find markers.

Claire McDonnell, Partnership Manager said,

“The idea behind introducing a new sport such as orienteering was to try and appeal to a different group of young people who perhaps don’t like your more traditional sports.

Orienteering is an active outdoor sport that challenges both the mind and body with children having to work together, devise a plan, find points and make decisions.

It was great to see a different group of young people getting the chance to represent their school, experience being part of a team and have fun and enjoy themselves!”

The event was hosted and Comberton Village College and leaders the schools performance plus pathway in year 10 supported the event and were involved with leading the activities, supporting the teams and timing and scoring the challenges.

Miss Shipley, PE teacher said:

“The leaders did a fantastic job and the feedback from pupils and teachers was very positive. Lauren Higgins was nominated as the leader of the day thanks to her fantastic support of a pupil with additional needs. Congratulations to all of the leaders involved with this competition.”

A Linton Heights team won the team score activity, finding the 10 check points located around the school field in a fantastic time of 16.18mins. Netball numbers was won by a Meridian team who completed all 6 courses and got all of their sums correct in a time of 10.13mins. Finally the school games challenge was won by a Bassingbourn team who located all 12 pictures in a speedy time of 4.20mins.

‘Spirit of the Games’ awards were also given out on the day to the following teams:

Haslingfield who demonstrated great determination and teamwork throughout the competition and in particular in the netball numbers challenge when things didn’t go to plan initially.

Bassingbourn who stopped to help fix one of the control points during the competition despite knowing that it would affect their time.