SC-ORE (School Orienteering)
SCHOOL BASED
ORIENTEERING RELAY COMPETITION
For Primary School Years (3-6)
COMPETITION RULES & GUIDELINES V 1 March 2015
(updated Feb 2018)
1. Introduction
SC-ORE (School Orienteering) is school based orienteering conducted as a mini-series of team competitions held in the ACT. SC-ORE is aligned to a Swedish orienteering concept designed to support and encourage more primary school students to enjoy the sport of Orienteering.
The program (guide only) for the annual mini-series SC-ORE competition (autumn and spring).
|
STAGE |
Autumn – March |
Spring – Oct/Nov |
|
#1 |
First Thurs in March |
Third Thurs in October |
|
#2 |
Second Thurs in March |
Fourth Thurs in October |
|
#3 |
Third Thurs in March |
First Thurs in November |
|
#4 |
Fourth Thurs in March |
Second Thurs in November |
|
Presentations – immediately after stage # 4. |
||
1.1 Aims of SC-ORE (School Orienteering)
To
- Increase engagement with orienteering through a relay team competition.
- Offer primary school orienteers in the ACT an opportunity to compete in a relay based competition with their
school friends.
- Attract new primary school students to “taste” orienteering in a safe and supported school-based team challenge.
- Provide opportunities to showcase orienteering to ACT Primary Schools, students and teachers.
1.2 Brief Background
In August 2014, Orienteering ACT (OACT) supported a proposal for the implementation of the SC-ORE competition to be piloted. SC-ORE is loosely based on a Swedish project known as Skol Sprinten which seeks to bring orienteering to primary school students in a safe, easy to run, well-structured way.
In December 2014, a preliminary intra-school competition was conducted at a small catholic primary school in Woden involving 95 years 5/6 students using the SC-ORE model.
In March 2015, a first pilot was established to test interest in an inter-school format.
Interest in the SC-ORE concept has been positive and the pilot SC-ORE competition was accepted for inclusion on the ACT School Sport Community Calendar for 2015. The future of SC-ORE will depend on the interest shown by primary school students in the ACT and surrounding areas and in the growth in primary school based orienteering into the future.
1.3 Definitions
SC-ORE: School orienteering for individuals as part of a four-person team comprising 2 girls and 2 boys from year 3, 4, 5 and 6 competing in a relay competition.
SC-ORE Series: The identified series of SC-ORE orienteering events.
SC-ORE Event: A relay competition/race held as part of SC-ORE.
1.4 Co-ordinator – SC-ORE
Orienteering ACT will appoint a co-ordinator for SC-ORE who is the first point of contact for schools, competitors, and other interested members of the community event organisers etc.
This person’s duties include:
- Liaison with Orienteering ACT to ensure that the aims of SC-ORE are met;
- Updating these guidelines when required;
- Identifying the locations of events and other key matters pertaining to SC-ORE activities;
- Ensuring courses are set and control placing and collecting are attended to.
- Oversight results and points allocation after every event;
- Co-ordinate the awarding of prizes etc.;
- Liaise with Orienteering ACT administration officer to arrange media coverage, publicity of event, etc.;
Some of these duties are provided with assistance from OACT volunteers and school volunteers.
1.5 The Event and competitors
All events will take place in an area considered a “known area”. That is, a school environment or public urban parkland. There will be no bush orienteering as part of this competition.
The key features of the events and the overall competition are that:
- Each team will comprise 2 boys and 2 girls.
- The running order with be girl, boy, boy, girl, with the first and last girl runners swapping after the first 2
events.
- Each runner will run between 500 to 900 metres – total team course distance to be around 3km.
- All 4 events will be conducted on school grounds or in urban parkland.
- Complete competition time will be approximately 30 minutes.
- Each competitor will be randomly allotted to run different courses, however each course will be of the same
level of difficultly and almost identical in distance.
- There will be at least one forked control on each of the courses. This allows for easy control setting, course
management and student supervision while still offering some navigational challenge for the participants. (Forked controls mean that each team will end up running the same total course, though not necessarily in the same order).
2 Rules – SC-ORE
The conduct of SC-ORE events is governed by the Competition Rules for Orienteering Australia Foot Orienteering Events (Operational Manual 2nd Ed Leaflet 2.1). These guidelines are supplemental to those Rules, and are intended to provide additional details to facilitate the smooth organisation of the SC-ORE events and series competition. Where possible, pointers to the relevant rules are included below.
2.1 Participation
SC-ORE events are open to all primary school students in the ACT and surrounding NSW primary schools as a team based competition. Teams comprise of 2 girls and 2 boys ideally from the same school, except where there is a single gender school that has negotiated with another school (not necessarily single gender) to make up a mixed gender team, or where a school has been unable to form a full team within their own schools. Such teams may invite students into their team from any other primary school. At the discretion of the organiser, girls may replace boys within a team.
The students should be in years 3, 4, 5 or 6. Younger students can participate if they have previous experience and have approval of the Co-ordinator.
2.2 Start Time
Unless otherwise designated in final instructions supplementary to these guidelines, the start time is 8.00 am. The competition will commence with a mass start, like a running race, with all first leg relay runners starting together. 2nd, 3rd and 4th leg relay runners will commence once the runner before them returns. In the event that some teams are slow to complete, a mass start for all remaining runners will be called at 8.25am (or at any time determined by the organiser on the day).
2.3 Competition
There are no divisions in this competition, all teams regardless of the year group of the team members, are competing in the same competition.
❖ Each relay leg will have between 6 and 9 controls (navigation/check points).
❖ Teams are encouraged to compete in all 4 events
❖ Teams that compete in less than 3 events will not be eligible for a top 3 final placings.
2.5 Point Scoring System SC-ORE
- Teams are encouraged to compete in all 4 events to maximise the opportunity to improve their score.
- Results will be taken from the best 3 results.
2.5.1 Placing Points Awarded per Team
| Place | Points | Place | Points | Place | Points | Place | Points | Place | Points |
| 1st | 100 | 7th | 36 | 13th | 20 | 19th | 11 | 25th | 5 |
| 2nd | 80 | 8th | 32 | 14th | 18 | 20th | 10 | 26th | 5 |
| 3rd | 60 | 9th | 29 | 15th | 16 | 21st | 9 | 27th | 5 |
| 4th | 50 | 10th | 26 | 16th | 14 | 22nd | 8 | 28th | 5 |
| 5th | 45 | 11th | 24 | 17th | 13 | 23rd | 7 | 29th | 5 |
| 6th | 40 | 12th | 22 | 18th | 12 | 24th | 6 | 30th + | 1 |
After each event, points are awarded to teams.
Throughout the series, the points are added progressively to give the SC-ORE score. The sum of the best 3 of 4 events is counted.
The cumulative score of the best 3 is used to decide overall placings for the series. Additional Notes:
Where a runner misses one or more individual control(s) (Missed Punch-MP) they will incur a time penalty for each control missed. For every single control missed the time penalty will be 60 seconds. Where more than four controls are missed an additional time penalty of 5 minutes will be imposed in addition to the 60 second penalty per control.
Runners are NOT to intentionally miss controls.
At the point where the Final Results are determined, where 2 or more teams have equal highest scores, the team with the fewest missed punches will rank highest. In the event that there are 2 or more teams with equal points and equal missed punches (including zero) the team that finished fastest on the final event will be declared the winner.
Where one or more team members are unable to attend an event, the team may;
allow another team member of the same gender to compete in the place of that runner, thereby resulting in one runner completing 2 courses. In such a case, when calculating this team’s time, this runner’s second time will not be used if it is faster than their first time (as they will have already been out on the map and have gained some advantage). In this case their first time will be counted twice;
OR
substitute the absent runner with a replacement student of the same gender for that event.
Where more than 2 runners of the same gender are unable to attend, and substitute runners of that gender cannot be found, the team may enter the event with whatever team compilation it can but it may not be eligible for points. If two or more teams are tied in an event, they shall each be awarded the points for the place for which they are tied.
2.6 Ceremonies
After the final race of the season the SC-ORE Co-ordinator shall organise a presentation ceremony to be completed by 8.45 am.