The Canterbury Schools Orienteering Festival is an annual event with the dual aims of providing an introduction to orienteering for school aged students as well as a competitive race for experienced orienteers. It is designed for all school-aged students from  primary, intermediate, high school and those homeschooled in Canterbury. PAPO plan plenty of training opportunities in the lead up to learn and practise orienteering skills. This year there were 11 training events available around Christchurch before the Canterbury School Orienteering Festival. Lisa and Briana provided a recap of the event:
A good range of schools were represented at the event with the biggest number of competitors from Mt Pleasant / Te kura O Paeraki School. It was great to see so many young people trying orienteering out and that was reflected in the big number of entries in the open easy and open medium categories.  There were also lots of little people, younger than Year 5/6 in the open category.  The Yr 7/8 an 10/11 categories were both competitive and had bigger numbers. The courses on both days were well planned and enjoyed by all. The length of the urban courses as a little surprising for some, but they enjoyed the challenge of the hills. The “maze type” area by the ponds was a highlight for many on Saturday, and the fast running forest and technical dunes were commented on in the forest event. The BBQ, cake stall, maze and lolly scramble were very popular. The students loved hopping up on the podium and being awarded certificates and spot prizes too. There were quite a few new families at both days and comments were made about how much their children enjoyed the experience and they wanted to know about other upcoming events. PAPO have listened to this and next year there will be some family centred events happening directly after the Canterbury Schools event next year.  Overall the weekend was  filled with kids being active, trying something new and having fun with their friends.

by Lisa Chubb

The forest event and the Canterbury Schools Orienteering Festival had a good turnout of 91 students with 78 of those in the competitive grades. Everyone enjoyed the courses in the Spencer Park forest, and it helped that the weather turned out stunningly after a bit of a wet and cold afternoon the day before. Felix Hunt set some particularly tricky courses for the older students which caught some out, even in a forest we have used quite a lot for orienteering recently. There were some very fast times with Walter Symons winning the Y5/6 Boys grade in under 9 minutes, and Greta Prince blitzing the Y10/11 Girls orange course in only 25 minutes. There were lots of happy faces as people were finishing and so I think it was a great chance for school kids both new to the sport and experienced in orienteering to have a great morning out competing for overall glory, and glory amongst their friends on the finish sprint. A now staple favourite of the Canterbury Schools events, the maze was out again run by Joseph and Tane who did a great job providing a little extra for all the runners to make the day out even better (as well as the post prize-giving lolly scramble)! It’s always great to see so many new faces at this festival and I hope some enjoyed it so much they will keep showing up to future orienteering events. 

by Briana Steven