The Big League and it's impact on School Sport

The Big League is back and bigger than ever! Returning for the third year, The Big League was designed to create an inclusive competition opportunity for all schools to take part in, regardless of school size or available outside space. 

Today schools face lots of obstacles to taking part in sports competitions, whether its access to transport, staffing or the cost to enter, is simply unaffordable to justify. The Big League tackles all of these challenges by allowing all schools to compete against each other from the comfort of their own school grounds, completely for free.

Every outdoor activity is automatically logged on the system and schools are scored in four different data categories. 1. Distance covered. 2. Time spent outside. 3. Percentage of pupils participating. 4. Number of orienteering courses completed. This means that every school setting and size has an equal and fair opportunity to succeed in one or more of the categories, all contributing to the overall school score.

Over the past 2 years, we have seen over 6,275 sessions logged by 8,311 pupils, covering 7,378km and spending over 143 days being active!

For 2025, we are extending The Big League by an additional 3 weeks to give more schools and pupils the opportunity to take part. For every school that takes part, they will receive a customised downloadable certificate straight in their account. There are also top prizes available for winners of each category and the top 5 schools overall. These include a signed GB Orienteering shirt, custom video message from a GB Orienteering team member, free entry to the national schools orienteering championships and many more!

Because we believe that every child deserves equal access to sport, we don’t want there to be any barriers for schools to take part so our basic package is available for any school to sign up to from here or on our website.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, British Orienteering and sponsors, The British Schools Orienteering Association for their incredible support and generosity over the years. They are both fantastic organisations who share our passion for grassroots sport and inspiring a generation of healthy, active young people.

The Big League will return in Spring 2025, so watch out for further updates and get your school involved today!