Inspiring confidence, inspiring others
Our Sports Coaching class from Dumfries High School was recently involved in a collaborative project with St Andrews Primary School and the council Outdoor Education team. Huge thanks must go the Holywood Trust who helped us out with some funding for this valuable educational experience.
We are all part of the Sports Coaching course at the High School, where we learn to coach various different sports. This year, we had the opportunity to work with the Outdoor Education team, and were taught how to lead orienteering sessions. This taught us the basics of orienteering and we then had to lead a day of orienteering for St Andrew’s P7 pupils, in Mabie forest.
We introduced the primary children to map reading, by leading them on a guided walk, through the forest. We also showed them how to find the controls, how to use the electronic orienteering controls and set them off on various different mini orienteering courses. Because we were working in the forest, we also had to make sure that the P7’s knew the safety points, and that they knew what to do if they got lost. Thankfully no-one did get lost!
After lunch we set them off on a longer course, hoping that we had taught them well and that they could find all the controls. It was great to see their progress from the morning session, when they weren’t too sure what they were doing, to them confidently reading the map, and flying round the course. Some of the P7’s were really good, sprinting between controls, and finishing in super quick times.
Working with St Andrew’s Primary was fun and we want to say thanks to Mr Valentine, and the pupils, for giving us the chance to teach them. We really enjoyed it and we hope that you did too.
As St Andrew’s headed back to school, we all went to the Outdoor Centre at Carlingwark, in Castle Douglas, where we were staying the night. We had a great night, including one of Mr Smith’s legendary quizzes after dinner!
The following day we all went mountain biking in Dalbeattie forest, which was a brilliant experience for most of us. We learned new skills, and gained confidence in tackling some of the natural features on the mountain biking trails. There were a few sore legs the following day though, because we fairly clocked up the miles!
We have to say a massive thank you to the whole Outdoor Ed team, for giving us the chance to take part in this project. These 2 days were brilliant for increasing our confidence and our resilience, as well as giving us a great opportunity to further extend our coaching repertoire.
