Greenside Primary School - Orienteering and Permnent orienteering courses

Orienteering and Permanent orienteering courses

ORIENTEERING AND PERMANENT ORIENTEERING COURSES

We hope you enjoy the Ducks Trail. It provides an introduction to map reading, navigation and the sport of Orienteering and is an example of a Permanent Orienteering Course (POC).

There are 3 other POCs in Tameside:

- Etherow Lodge Park

- Gorse Hall, and

- SIlver Springs.

In total there are some 55 POCs in Greater Manchester and surrounding areas. Details of each of these POCs can be accessed via www.gmoa.org.uk, where you can also order a POC map for £2 or less, and if you buy a pdf you can print as many copies as you like for no extra charge.

If you visit https://gmoa.org.uk/orienteering/ you will find an introduction to POC orienteering. Starting with a White course (similar in difficulty to the Ducks Trail), as your navigational skills improve you can progress to Yellow, Orange and harder courses.

A great advantage of a POC is that it's always there, so you can walk or run around a course whenever you like.

Alternatively, if you'd like to try an orienteering event, there are 2 clubs in the area: Manchester & District Orienteering Club (www.mdoc.org.uk) and South East Lancs Orienteering Club (www.seloc.org.uk). Both of these clubs put on a programme of events in various formats and you would be made very welcome if you were to come along.

If you are uncertain what to expect at a POC or an orienteering event, you may be interested in 'Get Out and Go!', a series of coaching videos, funded by Sport England, and which were filmed in Manchester parks in the autumn of 2020. These videos may be found on the MDOC YouTube channel, and via a link on https://gmoa.org.uk/learn-the-skills/. You can use the videos to learn how to read a map and pick up navigational skills, from beginner's level to more advanced techniques.

We hope you enjoy trying the sport of orienteering!