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Gold Star Award

Posted Thursday, June 17, 2004

Required elements

1. Walk or run round a 'handrail' course set on a school site or park area keeping the map orientated with or without a compass and using your thumb to show your position on the map. (see note)

2. Demonstrate the ability to use simple compass bearings to locate points in a school field or other open space.

3. With the help of a teacher or friend plan a course with 6 control points on an orienteering or large scale Ordnance Survey map of a local park, open space or school grounds, within 500 metres of an agreed start and finish point. Draw a circle for each control point on your map. Visit them in order and mark your route on your map afterwards. (see note)

4. Use the scale to measure the total distance you covered and where possible count the contour lines to gauge the total height climbed.

5. Survey and draw a simple map demonstrating knowledge of map symbols and scale.

6. Complete an organisation task at a school event.

Note For children with physical or mental disabilities the course can be a line course. They can then follow a line shown on the map which follows clear paths or lines of tapes. The children mark on their maps the exact location of each control point as they reach it and receive points for each correct location.