Friday was the selection event for the Secondary Outdoor Adventure Program, or SOAP. This is a year-long programme of courses and activities, delivered by the Outdoor Learning Service, aimed at progressing the skills of senior pupils in outdoor activities. For 2010/11 we are piloting mountaineering skills; bringing together a range of courses and experiences around all things ‘mountain sport’ ; navigation, rock-climbing, summer and winter mountain skills. For more information see the programme details online .
Friday saw the hopeful candidates compete on a fairly tricky orienteering course up on Lothian edge. After this the group travelled on to Innerwick Centre where they made dinner before going out on the hill again after dark. Each member of the group took it in turn to navigate over Spartleton in the darkness, using map compass, head-torch, and the light of the moon. Reaching the summit at midnight and seeing the Crystal Rigg wind-farm lit by the moon was an eerie sight. After navigating safely back down the team returned to Innerwick at 2am for a well earned bed.
The aim of the activities was for the candidates to demonstrate that they are committed and enthusiastic about the programme – and that they had the required level of fitness, determination and organisation. We are pleased to say that they all acquitted themselves well and were all invited to take part. Four schools will hopefully now have pupils participating throughout 2010/11; North Berwick High (5), Dunbar Grammar (2), Knox (1) and Preston Lodge (1).
O-results are as follows … the names have been anonymised, but you know who you are! Note – applying the late penalty is why the results are different than those read out on the day – but the positions were unchanged.
18 controls, limit 50 minutes. Penalty 1 point per minute, or part minute, over the 50 minutes.
| Pos | Name | Points | Time | Controls, in order visited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dunglass | 122 | 52:35 | 118, 112, 113, 119, 120, 117, 116, 114, 115, 107, 102, 105, 110, 109 |
| 2 | Lammer Law | 119 | 50:09 | 118, 112, 113, 119, 120, 117, 116, 114, 115, 107, 106, 109, 108 |
| 3 | Esk | 105 | 48:02 | 118, 112, 113, 119, 120, 117, 114, 107, 103, 106 |
| 4 | Peffer | 94 | 50:58 | 118, 104, 119, 120, 117, 116, 114, 102, 105, 110, 109, 108 |
| 5 | Chesters | 64 | 50:44 | 106, 108, 109, 110, 105, 102, 115, 114, 107, 103, 118 |
| 6 | Biel | 45 | 48:12 | 106, 109, 108, 118, 112 |
| 7 | Badger | 45 | 49:06 | 106, 109, 108, 118, 112 |
| 8 | Luffness | 45 | 49:09 | 106, 107, 102, 105, 110, 109, 118 |
| 9 | Gannet | 41 | 53:27 | 106, 109, 108, 118, 112 |
You can view/download the orienteering map to see your route by clicking on the map thumbnail below.
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This sounds like a really interesting programme. How many events are planned for the forthcoming year? Are the activities undertaken purely for pleasure or does this contribute to some “formal achievement”, e.g. a recognised course, DoE, John Muir Award, etc? Do you know of any other OE services who are doing something similar? Sorry to ask so many questions.
Hi Julie
Take a look at http://www.www.edubuzz.org/outdoorlearning/forschools/#secondary and follow the link to SOAP to answer most of your queries. Or see the SOAP doc here.
Wrt relationship to DofE etc? Aim is for SOAP to compliment/extend the activities on these awards. There is some formal training that will include NGB awards. But the intension is that SOAP provides experiences that lets youngsters build up the own body of experience that’s needed to make their own judgment calls on safety etc. But the approach is to make the whole set of activities more flexible – get them closer to the real world of how grown-ups do these activities.
Do other OE centres provide this? Not that I know of. But then we are aware of how well supported we are within EL council to be able to provide these quality experiences. Intension is to start with Mountain Sports this year, see how this goes then add on a Paddle Sports version
Give me acall if you want to discuss further …
regards
Andy