What orienteering activity are you doing to take part in
National Fitness Day? 

“Orienteering is a great way for everyone to get outdoors, explore and have fun whilst being active which makes it the perfect activity for National Fitness Day. This is a huge opportunity to take part in a national campaign, reach new people, increase awareness and raise interest in the sport across the UK. To get involved simply decide what you want your event to be, register your event on the National Fitness Day website, promote your event using the free marketing materials provided and put on a great session on the day!”

ukactive

#Fitness2Me

As part of National Fitness Day, ukactive will run the social media campaign:  #Fitness2Me

The #Fitness2Me campaign celebrates what fitness means to people, promoting that keeping physically active means something different to us all. ukactive aims to make #Fitness2Me the biggest movement in breaking down the barriers that stop people being active, showing that fitness is for everyone.

To Get Involved:

• Simply grab a piece of paper and scribble down what Fitness Means 2 You
• Then take a photo or capture a video to share on social media
• Don’t forget to add #Fitness2Me and #FitnessDay and tag us via @FitnessDayUK
• Also, include @GBRorienteering and @britishorienteering
• If you don’t have social media you can email your photo through to ukactive to share online for you.  Email: nationalfitnessday@ukactive.org.uk

Don’t forget to also register your event in the event fixtures on the British Orienteering website here.  Please start the event title with ‘National Fitness Day’ – this will ensure your event is included in promotional activity planned by British Orienteering.

Any #Fitness2Me shared on social media will be featured on the ukactive media wall on the National Fitness Day website.

BOK has a set of stand-alone Orienteering kit that is used within Avon Schools and Jackie Hallett encouraged us to use this kit.  The kit links to a standalone printer, with no link to a computer so no power on site or technical knowledge is needed (phew!).  You just put out the controls, hand out dibbers and ready to go.  At the end, each person gets a print out which all children are excited about!

David Hunt, a BOK colleague, offered to help us which proved invaluable. 

We put out 10 controls around the school grounds and then created 4 courses to avoid a trail of people following each other and to enable those keen enough to keep having another go.  Maps were A4, put into plastic wallets and reused.  We had some of the older children going solo or with a friend and lots of family groups going around together.  At 50p a go, we didn't make a vast amount of money, nothing compared to the raffle.  However, £45 meant we'd introduced 90 children and their families to Orienteering, and their 50p had lasted 20 minutes.

While I still had the club kit, I went back to school the following week and spent an afternoon with my children's year group of 7/8-year-olds and let all 60 children have a go.  One of the teachers had already orienteered as a child down in Southampton with her family and therefore did the explanation of what to do.  We then showed them the map which we had projected on the school white-board.  We then released 30 children at a time. 

It was a very hot afternoon, and the children may not all have known where they were going, but every one of them ran as fast as they could in one direction or another!  All of them managed to finish one of the courses.  The beauty of the stand-alone system is that the printer just records where you've dibbed. There are no mis-punches or DNF recorded.  Everyone was happy!” 

Rachel continues:  “My next task is to try and build on this enthusiasm and encourage some of the children to come along to some appropriate BOK events in the future.”

If you want to share orienteering with others more information and resources are available here.

If you have a similar orienteering story you would like to share with others, please email:  jtaylor@britishorienteering.org.uk

Parents in Sport Week aims to encourage sports organisations and clubs to recognise and promote the positive and important role parents play in helping young people reach their full potential and enjoy their time playing sport.

The Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) will be publishing a list of all organisations who signed up on our website in early September to showcase the organisations that have pledged their support to the campaign.

The CPSU has a range of resources which are available for clubs to download and use to promote parental involvement in orienteering.

For more information and to access the resources available – click here.

For more information and to find out more about how your club can get involved with Parents in Sport Week – click here.