In November John and I were able to fulfil a promise to the students at Bicheno Primary School to run the Australian Orienteering Championship sprint courses that had been conducted on their doorstep.
The school was highly supportive of the event throughout, and especially on the day when the weather forced a hasty retreat into the school gym. During visits for course setting for the Sprint Championships we had taken time for an introductory session with the grade 5/6 students and their teacher Matt Woolley. We were impressed with how receptive they were, the quality of their questions and the interest shown.
This introduction to orienteering was a continuation of a successful partnership with the school initiated by us and our daughter Alison and husband Simon Stubbs when our grandson Ethan was at the school two years before. John produced a school map and Alison and Simon donated flags and punches to the school.
After the initial session earlier this year we returned to Bicheno following the Championships with all the necessary equipment to run the course 8 and 9 with SI timing and set the start and finish up with bunting to replicate some of the atmosphere of the Championships. Roger Harlow was also available to come down from St Helens to be part of it and we encouraged parents to be present.
With only the earlier introductory course as experience, the students paired up (some tackled it in their own) for their first course on a championship course! They took to it with a remarkable enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment. The experience was repeated for the grade 3/4s in the afternoon after a brief explanation, with a Grade 5/6 student teamed up with each a pair.
Some of the times recorded by the grade 5/6s were competitive with championship entrants. In fact the M10 Bicheno students (running as a pair) knocked three minutes off the winner’s time for the Aust Champs! The W10 were a minute behind the Aust Champs winner. The M & W 12 found the course more demanding finishing a few minutes behind the Aust Champs winners. But that is pretty good given that for most of them it was just their second attempt at orienteering!
But the real reward for us was the way they appreciated the opportunity and their enthusiasm and enjoyment. We later received letters from student expressing their appreciation along the lines of “it was awesome to use the same course as the champions” and it has “inspired many of us to think about competing in other events later on in life.” And: “Our school loves orienteering and this wouldn’t be possible without you. It’s people like you that make the world go round”. What more can you ask for?
There’s a nice selection of photos provided by Roger Harlow attached which shows the students in action.
Valerie