We invite you to enter the Kent Junior Orienteering Festival at Leybourne Lakes Country Park

Parking
Car Parking will be in the main Country Park car park. The entrance is off the roundabout on the A228 south of Snodland.

Safety
You must not attend if you or a member of your household has tested positive for COVID-19 or it you have symptoms

You must adhere to the British Orienteering Participant Code of Conduct.

We will be providing marshals to facilitate a safe environment for children to participate. Please email the Organiser using the "Contact" link above if you are willing to be a marshal for part of the time of the event.

New to orienteering?
If you have not been to an orienteering event previously and would like to know more about the event, please mention this when you arrive and we will provide guidance before you start.

Entries
If you have any difficulty entering using the entry system to the event, please contact the Organiser using the link above the map.

Courses available
There are four courses designed to be appropriate for particular school year groups (see the Courses section above for details) but any junior can opt to run a longer course than the nominated course for their age class and be competitive for a medal on that longer course.

Event centre
The meeting place will be a short walk from the car park. Look for the red and white tapes and follow these to reach the tall dark blue sail banner near the first lake you will come to.

There are toilets next to the car park and a brand new cafe nearby serving hot and cold food and drinks..

There will be a first aid kit at the event for largely self-use and a first aid trained club member in attendance.

Map
A mixture of open parkland, meadows and some areas of forest surrounding several large lakes. The map is 1:7,500 for all courses printed on waterproof paper.

Children on the White course will be able to see the map of their course before they start. They can also discuss it with their parent/guardian but once they start they should be left to discover the area themselves if at all possible. A parent/guardian can "shadow" the child by following some distance behind and should not look at the map. If you choose to shadow, please let us know at the download tent if you feel that you needed to give some input to the child on the course.

Children on the Yellow course can study their map on their own before they start.

Children on the Orange and Light Green courses will get to see their map after they start.

Videos
These two short videos will hopefully give you a good idea of what you will be doing Videos.

Start
You will be able to start at any time within the period 11:00 to 11:45. There will be a gap of a minimum of two minutes between competitors on each course.

Electronic punching
You will carry an electronic finger which will record your presence at the start, each control and the finish.

If you are hiring an electronic finger, these will be in an envelope in alphabetical order of the child's surname close to the small blue tent.

Shadowing
Shadowing is permitted. If the shadower provides any meaningful interaction during the competition, please mention this at download so that we can mark the child as non-competitive for medals. The shadower will not be given a map showing the course.

Control descriptions
Control descriptions are printed on the map.

Loose control descriptions are available at the event. These are helpful if you want to avoid keep unfolding your map to check the control code is correct at each control visited but their use is optional. Please ask at the Event Centre if you would like a copy for your course.

Results
When you finish, first go to the blue tent to download the data on your electronic finger. If you want to see the time you took to get to each control to compare with others, these can be printed for you.

You will be able to access live results on the DFOK website during and after the event www.dfok.co.uk using a QR code which can be accessed by your mobile phone.

Prize giving
There are plenty of medals to be awarded. Details are on the event website page and on racesignup.

It is hoped that many will want to stay for the prize-giving. There are picnic tables and the weather looks reasonably good, so come prepared.

Prize-giving will commence as soon as all medal winners are known, expected to be around 12:30. A set of podia will be used. Photos are permitted and if you do not want your child to be photographed then please let us know at the blue tent.