Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96orienteering Once again, it is the time of year to write my report for orienteering, and like all other years we have been very busy and also successful in all the major competitions we have entered, winning six individual medals and two team medals. Our competitive year started back last November with our first major event the British Schools Championship, a very early start of 8.00am saw us travel all the way to Sandringham to compete against over forty schools, a competition where pupils are giving a map with a course on which they have to complete in order, missed controls lead to a disqualification. Saturday gave the pupils opportunity to check out the area they would be running in on Sunday, once completed we headed to our accommodation for the night. All pupils that took part on Sunday completed their courses in good times! Our final event of the school year was entered in May, the West Midlands Schools’ Championships, an event where schools from around the local area get to compete against each other. We went into this event knowing that schools like Kenilworth and Walton High School were going to be to be very tough competition for us! Everybody returned safely and then we had a long wait for final results. Had we won, sadly not but we came second and beat out local rivals Kenilworth into third! Orienteering club was set up and started just after the Easter holiday’s 2015 and has been running successfully for the last year on a Wednesday after school. I would like to thank a few pupils that will be leaving us this year to go off to university for their continuous contributions to orienteering over the years: Harrison McCartney (the boys’ captain) and Rhiannon Cope (the girls’ captain) for their support with events. Finally, as I step down as Orienteering Co- ordinator this year, I would like to say a massive thank you to all the pupils that have participated throughout my time in this role, without your commitment we would not be able to have such and strong and successful team. Parents for your support over the last few years, ferrying you child around, sometimes at very early hours of the morning and the volunteer staff (Mr and Mrs Cope and Mr and Mrs Morse) that have continued to support and help me over the years! If your child would like any information about Orienteering, please e-mail me on morsed@khviii. net and I will provide you with information about the sport and training/club opportunities. Please also take a look at our local club’s website for more information: http://www.octavian-droobers.org/ Miss Morse harriSon BoWS oUt The West Midlands Schools Championships was held at Kingfisher Country Park in Birmingham this year, and the course was typical of a School Championships; fast and relatively short. The sun was shining, which was perfect when stood still, but less so when running out in the open of the park. I had a normal run and everything went swimmingly before sinking into some brambles right towards the end with the finish in sight! Everyone in the team put effort into their runs, some duly rewarded. It is strange to think I will never Orienteer for the school again! I would just like to say a thank you to Miss Morse for all her hard work and commitment to organising School Orienteering. I also received good news of selection to compete for Great Britain at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in the mountains of the Lower Engadin Valley, Switzerland where I will run in the Middle and Long Distance Disciplines! neW to orienteering It all started when Miss Morse ran the weekly after school club on Wednesdays, alongside the prep-school. I decided to try it out because I run fairly frequently, and enjoy reading maps very much, being quite proficient at it. At the first session, I didn’t know what to expect, and she introduced us to the map symbols, which are slightly different to standard OS maps; compasses, to orientate yourself; and what you need to look for. We did a short orienteering course in the prep school hall and I found it quite easy. A few weeks on, we started to orienteer in the school fields and that was great fun. My first proper organised “event” was with Miss Morse and the King Henry VIII School team in Kingsbury Water Park, where Miss Morse ran with James Moffatt and I, and showed us how it all worked… the EMIT cards, control points, how to use a compass, and how to read the map symbols and working out where to go. After a few weeks, James, I and my younger brother entered as part of the Henry’s team to run at the Coventry and Warwickshire School Championships at the Coventry Memorial Park. We all ran well, and my brother was runner-up in his age category! I was told that in the summer term, orienteering will be on Wednesday evenings in events run by the local orienteering club, the Octavian Droobers, also known as OD. OD was, in fact, founded by a former King Henry VIII School Classics master in 1965, called Ted Norrish. My parents, who are keen runners, helped out in one of the events and became interested in the sport themselves. They now have put Wednesday evening orienteering in our family calendar, and my brother and I have since been to a number of OD orienteering events and getting more confident in our orienteering skills. Despite not particularly liking running, I enjoy orienteering massively because there is a purpose to it all, finding the controls correctly. You don’t even have to be the quickest runner, either – if you can read maps well, you will do better than someone who can run fast but can’t read maps accurately. If you like the outdoors and are interested in map reading and running, it’s a great sport to get into. To get involved, speak to Miss Morse or visit the Octavian Droober’s website (http://www.octavian-droobers.org/). Jacob Oxtoby, Year 9 2015 to 2016 | 51