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SpatialNews.com Press Release
Schools Celebrate Fifth Birthday of Free Maps Initiative
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Schools celebrate fifth birthday of free maps initiative Ordnance Survey is to make a free OS Explorer Map available to every Year 7 pupil in Great Britain, extending one of the biggest education initiatives of its kind by a fifth year.
Director General and Chief Executive Vanessa Lawrence made the announcement on a special visit to a Tower Hamlets school accompanied by the Minister for London and constituency MP, Jim Fitzpatrick.
The move means that a further 700,000 children will be eligible for a free map this autumn, following in the footsteps of more than three million since the initiative was first launched.
"Feedback on the educational benefit from pupils, parents and teachers clearly indicates a strong wish to see the scheme run again," says Vanessa Lawrence. "These maps are seen as an invaluable extra resource for classroom exercises, homework, projects and fieldwork across the curriculum. Schools are making innovative use of the maps and pupils have gained real confidence in map reading, which will serve them well throughout their lives. We are delighted to celebrate the initiative's fifth birthday by announcing another distribution to schools across Great Britain."
Pupils at George Green's School on the Isle of Dogs heard the announcement at the start of a geography lesson combining map and computer skills with local knowledge. Principal Kenny Frederick, a geographer, says: "This is an excellent initiative from Ordnance Survey, offering a practical and relevant resource for teaching and learning. By understanding the concept of location, pupils can begin to explore the links between the environmental, social and economic issues which shape the world."
Although distributed through schools, the maps are owned by the children themselves, so they can be taken home and enjoyed out of class. They are made available for Year 7 as this is the point at which map skills are mandatory under the national curriculum in England and Wales and the national guidelines for education in Scotland.
Jim Fitzpatrick , a Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry, says: "I am very pleased to offer my support to Ordnance Survey's free maps for 11-year-olds initiative. Hundreds of thousands of pupils across Great Britain will be able to discover the value of maps, learning to appreciate their communities and discover the outdoors. I believe that young people should be proud of where they live and go to school, and this initiative will certainly help them build up a sense of the world around them. I commend the idea of providing a healthy educational resource to encourage children to get active."
Millions of people use OS Explorer Maps for walking and other outdoor activities because of the remarkable amount of landscape detail they show - every hamlet, village and town along with tracks, paths, field walls and hill contours. They are published at a scale of 1:25,000, which means 4 cm on the map equals 1 km on the ground (2½ inches equals 1 mile). Each map covers at least 600 sq km (230 sq miles) of land.
Ordnance Survey's website for children - www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone - is playing an increasingly important role in the free maps scheme by offering interactive games and activities online. It recently won a gold award from the Geographical Association for the quality of its GIS Zone learning resource.
Teachers across Britain will be invited to order the free maps on behalf of their pupils at the start of the autumn term.
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