Our featured star school... Biggar High School

Our featured Star School is... 

Biggar High School, South Lanarkshire

Visited by Orienteering Champion Tessa Hill 

Everyone thinks that all you need to do to become a champion is to be good at something for example people think that if you are good at running you will win a race.  Unfortunately this isn’t all you need to be a champion.

Through the “Champions in schools” programme we learnt about the other things you need to be a champion.The champion who came to speak to us was Tessa Hill who who has represented Great Britain at junior and senior level in Orienteering.  Through her 3 lessons with us, Tessa taught us about all the things we need to have to be successful in anything we want to do, not just in sport.

In lesson 1 our targets were discussed and they could have been targets which took weeks to complete such as win first prize in a competition or targets which take years to complete such as becoming a doctor.  As long as the targets were SMART then they could be done.  A SMART target is a target which is able to be measured, achievable, able to be completed in a time limit and the target must be connected to you.

In week 2, Tessa spoke to us more about what it really takes to be a champion.  She talked about what it really means to have a balanced lifestyle and the importance of taking part in regular physical activity.  True fitness is about having a healthy lifestyle that works for you.  She asked each pupil to keep a diary of a positive meal or snack choice, positive hydration and physical activity everyday for 3 weeks.

In week 3 Tessa spoke to us about winning attitudes.  It is about using your mind to your advantage.  What really makes a good athlete is a positive attitude.  Some attitudes a champion will use are motivation, determination, self belief, focus and effort.

Every week Tessa taught us some tips about how to become better and even taught some students how to start orienteering. She taught us not just how to avoid obstacles but how to power through them and in week two we built up our physical fitness by completing an orienteering circuit using a map and completing different activities.  In the third week we put all of our winning attitudes into practice and tried a real orienteering course. 

Written by Laura Neville and Lauren Wallace