Orienteering is an exciting outdoor adventure sport suitable for all ages, that exercises mind and body .

The aim is to navigate between checkpoints or controls marked on a special orienteering map. There is no set route so the skill and fun come from trying to find the best way to go. In competitive orienteering, the challenge is to complete the course in the quickest time.

Together with the British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA), British Orienteering aim to support and grow Orienteering within education sector and provide training, resources and opportunities to compete at Orienteering events. 

If you are completly new to Orienteering, don't worry, check out our comprehensive Newcomer’s Guide here.

This page contains the following:

• Training Courses
  • What training Training Courses are available
• Resources
  • Get the latest Orienteering equipment

  • British Orienteering School Site Mapping Support

  • School Games resources

• Go Orienteering
  • Find your nearest Orienteering Event
  • Permanent and Virtual (GPS) Orienteering Courses
  • Find your local club
• British Schools Orienteering Association
  • Find out more about British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA)

Training Courses

E-Learning 'Introducing Orienteering' Course

Introducing Orienteering is a new initiative and has been designed to be the first step on the leadership pathway and aims to equip teachers and outdoor leaders with the knowledge and confidence to introduce Orienteering within their setting in a socially distanced way.

The cost of this eLearning course is £30 per learner, the course will take approximately an hour to complete, you will also receive the following

• Certificate
• 10 Group learning activities
• 7 supporting resources
• School Games information
• British Schools Orienteering Championships information
• Information on both on mapped and virtual courses across the country
• A list of useful books to support learning
• A list of Equipment suppliers and sources of funding

To access the course, click here to set up your login for our eLearning platform, then select the course from the menu.

Other Teaching Orienteering Courses Available:
Teaching Orienteering Part 1

• The training is aimed at teachers, youth sector workers and people working in schools and outdoor centres.
• The training delivers the knowledge, understanding and practical ability to teach the basic skills of orienteering.
• Attending Teaching Orienteering Part 1 is a prerequisite for anybody wishing to deliver the Orienteering Young Leader Award or attend the British Orienteering Teaching Orienteering Part 2 training.

Teaching Orienteering Part 2

• The training delivers the knowledge, understanding and practical ability to teach some of the advanced skills of orienteering.
• People wishing to deliver GCSE syllabuses’ for candidates from England, Wales and Northern Ireland should attend Teaching Orienteering Part 2. Candidates from Scotland will be shown the appropriate activities to meet their own curriculum requirements

Young Leader Award

• This award is designed for 14 - 19 year olds.
• The course they undertake will enable them to coach the basic skills of the sport, provide fun activities on a safe enclosed site and enable them to assist as volunteers at school or local events.

Details of courses can be found here. 

Resources

Resources for orienteering in schools are available from The British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA) and Bishop Sport and Leisure. Please click on the respective links in the text to see the resources they supply. 

Have you heard about Xplorer Schools?
Developed by British Orienteering to introduce orienteering to Primary Schools in an innovative and non-traditional way.  Find out more here.

British Orienteering School Site Mapping Support

Do you want to get your School site professionally mapped for Orienteering? You could set up your own Permanent Orienteering Course or purchase your own kites to set up your own courses as a great activity.

• British Orienteering will arrange for a specialist school orienteering mapper to be deployed to your site to produce a computer-generated accurate and professional looking map in a PDF format.
• You just need to decide on the area to be mapped.  In most cases, this will be your school site.
• British Orienteering will then mutually agree the timescales to complete the mapping, typically the lead time is 4 weeks

Cost:

• Prices start at £400 including VAT depending on the size and complexity of your site
   
• School maps will take at least 1 day for surveying and 1 day for the cartography.
• Email:  info@britishorienteering.org.uk

Schools Games Resources

Find out about Schools Games and resources to support you within this competition.

www.britishorienteering.org.uk/school_games

Go Orienteering

Find your nearest Orienteering event

What are you waiting for? Clubs across the country offer regular Orienteering opportunities which are available for all. Some clubs hold specific school events, where as others have open events. Simply follow the link below to find your local event and contact your local club to discuss your desires.

www.britishorienteering.org.uk/event 

Permanent and Virtual (GPS) courses

Permanent Orienteering and Virtual Orienteering Courses are located across the UK. They provide an excellent opportunity to experience Orienteering at one of your local parks at a time to suit you. Find out more here.

Find your local club

Many local orienteering clubs run regular coaching sessions, often at mid-week ‘club nights’, or on weekends.  If you want to talk about how you can experience orienteering or how you can get involved. 

Find your local orienteering club here.

British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA)

The British Schools Orienteering Association (BSOA) exists to promote, through information, advice and support, the development of all forms of Schools Orienteering including schools' site and park activities; navigational challenges in the countryside and orienteering competition models. Navigational skills are developed through map and compass exercises. Contact with schools is normally through PDMS, SSCo and individual teachers.

BSOA provides discounted orienteering equipment offers for schools and colleges, a network of regional contacts for advice in starting and developing orienteering within a school as well as advice and information on training courses. BSOA has increasingly developed links with the national governing body of the sport, British Orienteering, and became an Association of that organisation in 2003. It is also represented on the National Council of School Sports and through this the International School Sport Federation. The BSOA sends around 40 young athletes to the World Schools Orienteering Championships which are held every two years.

BSOA membership continues to grow and in 2006 exceeded 500 schools and colleges. It is playing a pro-active role in monitoring the progress of the British Schools' Score Championships and in promoting school leagues and other inter-school competitions. Orienteering is an important vehicle for delivering the Outdoor Adventurous Activity (OAA) within the English National PE Curriculum as well as providing the opportunity for cross-curricular links with Maths, Geography and Citizenship Studies. Likewise, it offers an exciting multi-dimensional extracurricular activity.

The BSOA is continually looking at new ideas and developments to make the sport more attractive to schools and their pupils. You can see more about the British Schools Orienteering Association and the services they offer on their website: BSOA 

Back to top