Using Covid to Bring the States Together Using Covid to Bring the States Together to Create a Great Asset
WOR DS DAV ID JA FF E
Lots of things stopped in the Orienteering World in 2020 but while we in Victoria were locking down, OA commissioned some work using grant funding to develop a common Orienteering curriculum for schools. Brodie Nankervis and David Jaffe got to participate and thought everyone should know how the states came together to create some amazing materials.
had to offer. At times he was amazed at how many materials we had and the impact we could have on a school compared to other sports. How was the cat herding?
Mike did an amazing job to get all states to share materials. We all got to see how every other state tackled schools and then Mike and his company synthesised it while aligning with the Australian curriculum. He got us to share, review and collaborate, quite an achievement in its self, as we worked to a tight time frame through a pandemic.
What was the Goal?
Create a common and accredited national curriculum for years three to six and extend this to years 7 and 8. The work also wanted to start to create pathways from school to more active Orienteering. In other words, end all this “we do it this way here” stuff and create something that all states could use and benefit from. This was advanced cat herding…getting six Orienteering nations to work together!
What’s come out of it?
A great handbook of activities and materials that we can used with schools. Its even designed so that staff could run their own programs. It’s a flexible set of resources than can work with a schools coach or with some remote support help a school do their own program. In addition the new curriculum and resources have allowed orienteering to become a sporting school provider for secondary schools, in addition to the work we were already doing in primary schools.
Who led the work and who was involved?
OA selected a company called McLaughlin Sports Consultancy led by Mike McLaughlin who has done work with many sports. Mike knew nothing about Orienteering but knows how to run a project, knows all about schools’ sports curriculums, has a proven process and had a great track record with other sports. Most of the states had their schools officer join the program so the gurus of school O program were on the case. Unfortunately, our Schools Officer had quit earlier in the year so David filled the breach and Brodie was involved in his national coaching role. What was great was seeing Mike, an o novice, get familiar with what Orienteering was and what we
What did schools say?
In October/November Mike got states to run pilots with experienced coaches and novice teaches and then got feedback and amended the materials. They loved it. In fact some of the feedback was some of the most interesting Mike had ever seen. Two schools commented page 37
