P5, P6 & P7 Orienteering Festival – Entries Welcome

 

The P5, P6 & P7 Inter-school Orienteering Festival takes place at Vogrie Country Park on the 6th of May 2015. This year the Festival will be open to all PDSC_0278rimary Schools in Midlothian and East Lothian.

The main aims of the Festival are to:

  • Have fun!
  • Promote alternative physical activity in the outdoors
  • Provide an opportunity for pupils to compete in the sport of orienteering
  • Further increase pupils’ understanding of maps
  • Experience skills for learning and skills for life
  • Meet pupils from other schools

Festival information:

  • Schools can enter P5, P6 & P7 classes
  • There will be 3 different Orienteering courses suited to the ability of each class
  • There will be no charge for this event
  • Each school is responsible for arranging the transport of pupils to and from Vogrie Country Park
  • Each class can expect to be involved in Orienteering activities for about an hour
  • There will be no tuition on the day and it is expected participating students will have received tuition in their school grounds or at a CATO event
  • Schools will be asked to attend either a morning or afternoon time slot within school hours
  • Before or after the Orienteering Event schools can avail of other opportunities at Vogire Country Park – e.g. Orienteering warm up activities (staffed by Outdoor Learning) or Adventure Playground, Woodland walks – these should be fully organised and supervised by attending school staff
  • The winner of the fastest P5 pupil, P6 pupil, P7pupil, School and Authority will be announced after the event

To enter:

  • To enter please email me (eoin.keane@midlothian.gov.uk) the name of the school, the number of classes, the class size and the number of adults that will be attending by the 27th of March 2015
  • Once all interested schools have replied, further information will follow

Other resources and events:

  • A couple of interesting booklets for coaching orienteering in primary schools have recently become available on the internet, one from Sweden click hereand the other from New Zealand click here.  Both are worth browsing through for ideas
  • This year the World Orienteering Championships is taking place in Inverness – for more information click here

 

 

Penicuik High step into a winter wonderland

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFantastic work from all the S5/S6 pupils from Penicuik High who joined pupils from Secondary Schools in East Lothian on Pupils Winter Hill Walking Skills weekend based in the fantastic Cairngorm National Park.

Click here for more images

The groups raised there awareness and skills for walking in the winter environment including;

  • Safe travel on snow
  • Avalanche Awareness & Transceiver Use
  • Weather
  • Use of ice axes and crampons
  • Shelter building
  • Navigation

A packed weekend in amazing conditions. Great teamwork including cooking some hearty mountain meals!!  Thanks to our friends in East Lothian Outdoor Learning for all the support.

We still have some places left on our  CPD Winter Hillwalking Skills Course click here for details.

Reaching High for Success

Pictured are students here from PAVE on the Climb to Confidence programme who have just

PAVE Climbcompleted their Level 1 NICAS Award. They worked hard completing a range of climbs and bouldering challenges with weekly visits to RATHO EICA.  The NICAS level 1 foundation climber award includes developing skills in belaying, climbing, safety and teamwork.

Its been great fun to work with these students who applied themselves brilliantly to this programme. Well done guys!! – your certificates of achievement will be with you soon.

You deserve them.

Some of the aims of the programme achieved by the students include;

  • to develop climbing movement skills and improve levels of ability.
  • to learn climbing rope-work and how to use equipment appropriately.
  • to develop risk assessment and risk management skills in the sport.
  • to work as a team, communicate with, and trust a climbing partner.
  • to provide a record of personal achievement.

Climb to Confidence

imagesCAUFNVW9A successful and exiting morning climbing at Ratho Edinburgh International Climbing Arena last week with a great group of students from PAVE (Programme for Alternative Vocational Education). We are using the NICAS (National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme) to measure our success and achievement in this programme as we continue to climb over the next few weeks working through level 1.NICAS

Some great bouldering, belaying and climbing going on and we hope to develop confidence and resilience through this programme. This will also include completing L1 NICAS and completing an SQA improving wellbeing unit. You can see more information on the NICAS scheme here.

Outdoor Evidence – Education and Culture Committee – Scottish Parliament

This  is a video link for the recent meeting held by the Education and Culture Committee on the 12th December 2013. As members of SAPOE Midlothian Outdoor Learning submitted evidence (can be seen in the agenda papers) to support the SAPOE chair. We were also fortunate to have excellent representation by Christine Anderson of Beeslack High School Midlothian.

The evidence and discussions support much of the issues we submitted in our evidence to the Panel, such as the work outlined by SAPOE Chair Nigel Marshall on  “enabling outdoor learning” and help sets the agenda for Midlothian Schools and communities developing a more cohesive approach to Outdoor learning and outdoor education.

There is also an excellent discussion and evidence to support the value of outdoor education throughout the subject areas and the relationship between them i.e. interdisciplinary,  as Professor Higgins notes on the use of outdoor space and progressive outdoor education experiences;

 ” …the kids can learn not just about the subject areas, but the way in which they join up”

We are looking forward to tackling some of the challenges ahead for the Midlothian learning community and it’s approach to Outdoor Learning and Outdoor Education (one and the same!) and enabling as an Outdoor Learning team to provide;

Relevant, well planned, high quality outdoor learning opportunities for all our pupils, that contribute to outcomes and attainment across the curriculum subjects enabling learning behaviours that can contribute to successful lifelong learning and positive destinations.