Taupō school children not lost for something to do

Students study the map in the Orienteering Big Day Out at Spa Park in Taupō on Wednesday.

More than 400 primary and intermediate school children took part in the Orienteering Big Day Out in Taupō on June 14.

Taupo Orienteering Club chairman Lyndon Haugh said about 440 students from 10 schools in Taupō and surrounding districts took part in rogaining events at Spa Park.

He said it was “a suitable finishing finale” to the series of in-school orienteering training sessions held by the club in eight schools over Term 2.

“There was a significant increase in students from last year’s event, which had around 300 participants and perhaps reflects an increase in the interest from both schools and students in orienteering as a sport.”

He said it was clear from the results that many students had improved their orienteering and rogaining skills from last year.

“We will probably need to give the top scorers more of a challenge for next year’s event. There were some very fast times for course completion both in the Year 5/6 as well as the Year 7/8 section.”

Four schools shared in the first three placings in each section. Students from Hilltop School took top honours with three placings. Home-school students, St Patrick’s and Taupō Primary took the other three placings.

Students sprint to all four corners of Spa Park at the start of the Rogaine during the Orienteering Big Day Out in Taupō on Wednesday.

Home-school students George Fisher and Charlotte Taunton took first place in the Year 5/6 section with Taupō Primary students Pablo Stewart and Benji Farrar second and Archie Richardson and Soren Shinneman from Hilltop School third.

In the Year 7/8 section Charlie Kirkcaldie and Mollie Garlick from Hilltop were first, with a team of three; Jackson Cambie, Will Tiplady and Luca Caira from Hilltop second and Patrick Hancock and Zack Lagas from St Patrick’s third. Results are available on the Taupo Orienteering Club website.

It was the third year that orienteering education training sessions have been held in primary and intermediate schools in the district.

“It seems clear that with the increased interest in orienteering in schools, we will need to keep these sessions going next year.”

Late last year the club held a training session for teachers interested in convening orienteering in their schools.

“Hilltop has been an outstanding example of a school doing orienteering training sessions on their own, achieving great results and in addition they had a large number of their students participate in the Orienteering Big Day out.”

He said if there was sufficient interest from schools, they would hold another teacher training session towards the end of the year but, in the meantime, the club’s website contains guidance on how to introduce orienteering in schools.

“The club has been fortunate that for the past two years we have had Katey Coubrough to carry out the training as well as vital organisational support from Sue Maclean from Kiwisport and financial support from the Taupō Sports Advisory Council.”