Junior Corner

Norfolk Orienteering Club supports Juniors in a number of ways, particularly through its Junior league.

Norfolk Open Junior Championships
The Norfolk Open Junior Championships (first held in the ‘70s) are held at the end of the year, at the same event as the Club Championships. Juniors can compete in both Championships and League.

Norfolk Schools Orienteering Challenge
The Norfolk Schools Orienteering Challenge competition has been suspended until we can find a new organiser. It is a schools-only competition, aimed particularly at Primary and Middle Schools (Years 4 up to 7 or 8). The event is run on a weekday between 10.00 and about 15.00, with start times from 1030 to 14.30. Courses are planned to suit each year group and inexperienced children are encouraged to run in pairs. Schools may choose time slots within which to bring their children (morning, midday and afternoon) but must pre-enter at least the number of children in each age group so that the ‘administrator’ may allocate start times. 

Normally run three times a year, the event has had to be temporarily suspended due to the lack of an official to deal with the administration but we hope to continue this popular competition (generally drawing around 500 enthusiastic children) in the near future.

Orienteering Days at School
In addition to these main competitions, several volunteers within the club give up their time to visit schools to set up an ‘Orienteering Day’. Over the last two or three years, we have also put on ‘O’ displays at schools, sometimes accompanied by a small ‘event’.

School Orienteering Maps
An important function of the club is the mapping of schools. Several club members have visited schools in order to survey and map them. In this way, well over 100 Norfolk schools have been mapped. Any school which would like to consider such a survey should get in touch with Mike George (01603 408269) or Paul Garton  (01603 810256).


Norfolk Junior Orienteering League

The Norfolk Junior Orienteering League (formerly known as the Norfolk Schools Orienteering League and begun in the mid 1980s) is run in combination with our normal District Colour Coded events. All juniors are entered in the league (unless they ask not to be) if they have entered an event as individuals or pairs. Age classes up to M/W18 are catered for. Points are awarded to each participant, based on a comparison of their time with that of the class winner. The competition is organised in such a way that a junior may compete on any course, and so can proceed up through the Colour Code system, points bonuses being given for running on a harder course than that recommended for his or her age group. At the end of the year each competitor’s best four results are added, class winners being those with most points. Medals and certificates are awarded to the winners and to the runners-up. During the year, about 180 juniors will take part.

 

String Courses
The Norfolk Orienteering Club aims to provide a String course at our level B events, but only occasionally at level C (colour coded) events. Always check the event information on the Fixtures page which will say if a  String course will be offered.

String courses are suitable for very young children but can also be fun for older ones to run round either to warm up before their run or to fill in time after it. 

The courses are marked on the ground by a length of string which may be up to 0.5 km in length, and have about 10 control sites featuring not only an orienteering kite but also a picture or object which usually follows a theme. For example, the pictures show a control site at an event close to Christmas. Visits to the controls are recorded either by colouring in a box on the control card or by pin punching. Here is an example of this at Pretty Corner.