Scottish Schools’ Orienteering Festival
Hopetoun House - Friday 7 June 2019
The Festival is aimed at pupils who have been introduced to orienteering through their school and the courses will be set at a level that will allow success for all pupils who have grasped the basic skills. Courses will be set for Primary 5 and upwards.
The Festival will be held on Friday 7 June with the closing date for entries being Thursday 30 May 2019.
Final Details - v2
Download the pdf version.
Results
Venue
Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, EH30 9RW.
Travel
GR of Entrance to estate: NT101789The estate is signposted from EH30 9RW Farquhar Terrace, South Queensferry. There is a Brown sign to Hopetoun House along this minor road, follow for 1.5 miles then enter the estate at a large entrance sign on the south side of the road. Once inside the estate, follow the road westwards through a gate to a y-junction and veer right following the O-sign (don’t go to the public car park). Shortly thereafter, turn left in front of the house and follow marshals. Exit back along the same route.
Please note that the maximum height for coaches is 4.1 m! (13'6")
Note: Do not use Hopetoun House postcode EH30 9SL to navigate to the estate as this leads to a locked gate.
On Arrival
On arrival at parking one adult should please make your way to the registration/download area which will be in the Education Room which is located in the northern wing of the main house (right hand side as you look at it).Here you will be able to collect your SI dibbers for the electronic timing and receive any last minute information. Please remind any of your pupils who have an SI dibber to bring this with them. Take care to give the correct dibber to each pupil and any unused dibbers are returned. Warn the pupils that lost dibbers will cost the school £30.
We will also ask you to complete a form giving us the name and mobile number of the person to be contact in case of emergency. Pupil assembly is on the grass area to the right of the main house. This area is very near the start/finish.
Terrain and Safety
The terrain is a mix of well groomed parkland, formal gardens and pasture fields. The planner has supplied the following helpful information about what your pupils can expect in the area.- There is one old path (taken off the map) taped off with black/yellow tape – do not go this way – this area will have someone “marshalling” or watching
- The ha-has in front of the house must not be used for jumping! Ha-has are large walls and ditches which were used as defensive features in past years. These have hidden vertical faces and should be avoided! No one needs to be near these but pupils should stay clear.
- The boundary walls and ha-has separating the House Grounds from the Deer Park must only be crossed at the 2 gates where there will be a control and someone manning the gate. The boundary is overprinted on the map with a purple line. Only senior pupils go into the Deer Park.
- Only one ruined barbed wire fence to be crossed by S4 and above. No other fences should be crossed.
- There is a pond in the house grounds but courses do not need to go close to it.
- In the deer park there is a reservoir and a ruined tower that are fenced off – these should be avoided
- There are various horse jumps in the deer park – these are not necessarily mapped and none are used as control sites
- Undergrowth – there will be nettles so running in shorts is not advised!
Map
Please note that there was a mistake in the initial information. The map scale is 1:7500 with the contour interval at 5 m.The legend is covered by control descriptions but the following might be helpful – dark green are mostly thickets of rhododendron; large trees in the deer park are marked as white; smaller staked tress in the deer park are marked as green dots.
Control descriptions are only printed on the map and there are no loose copies.
Start
The start will be very close to the main house and to car parking. All areas to the west (back) of the house will be out of bounds to competitors before their run – please keep to the area in front of the house where the minibuses will be parked. All competitors will punch at the start to start the electronic timing. There will be no loose descriptions.Punching
Pupils visit all the controls on their course in order and use the SI dibber to punch the SI box at each control. There will be a sample near the start for pupils not familiar with the process. At this event contactless punching is not being used.This year, pupils who cannot find controls or visit the wrong one will not be disqualified but will have a 10 minute penalty for each one missing. Pupils who deliberately miss controls may still be disqualified.
Finish
Please ask all runners to punch the finish control and then proceed to the download as quickly as possible. This will help to ensure that the results can be processed as soon as possible.Toilets/Café - these are near the registration/download
Results
Provisional results will be on display in or near registration/download and on the internet at ssoa.org.uk/results/2019Prize Giving
This will take place as soon as possible after 1.15 pm. Current trophy holders – please return these to registration on arrival.In the Primary School courses the first three runners will receive an individual award and those in places four to six will receive a memento.
In the Secondary courses the first three finishers will receive a individual award.
Team awards in the Primary will be given to the first three Schools based on the combined times of their first three finishers and in the Secondary courses Team awards will be given based on the overall entry.
Litter
Please help us to keep litter to a minimum by encouraging your pupils to either use the bins provided or take litter home. Runners are asked not to take food or drink out on their course as this inevitably leads to litter being dropped. Thank you for your co-operation with this matter.Courses
| Course, | Year Group, | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1, | P5/6 Girls, | 2.1 km |
| 2, | P5/6 Boys, | 2.3 km |
| 3, | P7 Girls, | 2.4 km |
| 4, | P7 Boys, | 2.5 km |
| 5, | S1 Boys, | 3.4 km |
| 6, | S1/S2 Girls, | 3.8 km |
| 7, | S2/3 Boys, | 4.3 km |
| 8, | S3/4 Girls, | 4.7 km |
| 9, | S4-6 Boys, | 5.8 km |
JOK Chasing Sprint Event
Please see the attached flyer giving details of the 2019 JOK Chasing Sprint which will be televised live this year by BBC Scotland. The organisers have kindly offered at free entry to our winning senior school teams.
Acknowledgements
The SSOA would like to thank the following people for their invaluable support of this year's Festival:
Organiser - Anne Thom, ESOC
Planner - Katy Lessells, ESOC
Computing and Results - Robin and Sheila Strain, ELO; Ben Brown, ESOC
Donald Jackson and all of the staff at Hopetoun House and Estate
All of our on the day volunteer helpers
All teachers, parents and helpers who have organised the school teams
SOA Development staff
Entry Fees
School Registration Fee of £5 to cover general administration costs and affiliation to Scottish Schools’ Orienteering Association. The entry fee is £3.00 per participant (ie £6.00/pair)
Entries
Please use the official forms that you can download below and ensure that
- You email the Entry Form with names and course to info@ssoa.org.uk
- The Summary Entry Form is signed by the Head Teacher
- Cheques are made payable to SSOA
- Electronic payments can be made to SSOA, A/C No 00102718, Sort Code 80-17-02 - please ensure that the payment is referenced with the name of the school being entered.
Postal Entries should be sent to:
SSOA
7 St Ninians
Lanark
ML11 7HX
Postmarked no later than 30th May 2019.
Current Trophy holders should ensure that all Individual and Team Trophies be returned befor or on the day of the event.
More Information
Updated: 6rd June 2019
