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Proposed Changes to Secondary School Grades

Show Profile  NSmith Posted: 28 July 2016, 3:15 PM  
As per the latest Compass Point

Proposed Changes to Secondary School Grades

The Junior Development Committee is grateful for the detailed and thoughtful responses provided by the orienteering community on the schools grades document.

The committee noted many factors in the responses including:
Many year 9 orienteers are newcomers to the sport without a strong platform of technique;
Many of the regions do not have the event base and coaching resource to rapidly build their school orienteers to higher standards; and
that well set courses will ensure orienteering skill will predominate over speed alone.

The following grades system for North and South Island and New Zealand Secondary School Champs is recommended by the Committee:

1. School championships gradings be by school year, rather than athlete age.
Junior - Year 9
Intermediate - Years 10 & 11
Senior - Years 12 & 13

2. The course difficulty at each grade be as follows:
At Championship grade: junior will run yellow; intermediate run orange; senior run red.
At Standard grade: junior run white, intermediate run yellow, senior run orange.
A Novice grade be introduced at senior, running yellow.
It is proposed that the Novice grade will be included in the school points system, with the winner of a Novice grade obtaining no more than 5 points. Please note no decision on the review of the school points system has been made at this time.

3. Good quality and consistent standard of course setting is crucial at school championships. Mechanisms for assisting host clubs with this will be explored with the Technical Committee. A particular note for Junior Championship is that planners and controllers are asked to set courses within the boundaries of the yellow course definitions that provide route choice and in which navigational choices away from "handrail" features are likely to be the governing factor in deciding the winner.

4. Some Juniors may choose to “run up” in the Intermediate grade if seeking to run orange in order to achieve a suitable level of challenge. A review of numbers of juniors running up to intermediate will be made after the 2018 Championships to identify if a separate orange course is required at Junior.

5. These recommendations relate to the North Island, South Island and National School Championships. The Junior Development Committee will create an updated set of rules for these championships once approved. The changes are recommended for consideration at regional competitions, but are not binding on these competitions.

Feedback on the proposed changes closes on 31 August. Feedback to be sent to gm@orienteering.org.nz

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