Where There's a Map, There's a Way
Year 7 pupils at Longridge Towers School near Berwick were recently presented with their very own Ordnance Survey Map from local MP Sir Alan Beith. His visit coincides with a nationwide scheme to improve children's map reading skills as part of the Geography National Curriculum. Later in the day, he also took part in a debate with Sixth Form pupils whose keen questions showed that young people are very much aware of local issues and politics.
All Year 7 pupils were given a 1:25000 scale ExplorerTM Ordnance Survey Map and a copy of the ‘Map Reading Made Easy Peasy' Leaflet specially written for this age group. The maps of the local area will help children pinpoint familiar locations and will be used not only in Geography lessons but in other relevant subjects such as literacy, numeracy, ICT and citizenship.
Philip McParland, Head of Geography comments, "We were delighted that Sir Alan Beith MP was able to join us for the map presentations as this underlines the importance of this scheme. Mapping is a vital part of our history which sometimes gets overlooked in these days of electronic communications. However these skills are still vital for times when we find ourselves without these gadgets, as we know in rural areas we often have no signal so it's important that we have other ways of orientating ourselves."
The school which has been running the scheme for several years relies on a number of teaching methods from the contemporary such as digital mapping to the more traditional, reading from paper maps and atlases. Pupils are taught how to read maps and understand symbols, scales and contours. To make map reading both fun and relevant, teachers often use scenarios such as planning a pizza delivery route or plotting the way through a theme park to their favourite attraction.
After spending the morning with the younger pupils, Sir Alan took part in an afternoon Question and Answer session with students from the Lower Sixth. As well as answering questions on his political career, he also answered questions on current affairs and social geography. Demonstrating a strong interest in the region, topics raised for debate included dualling the A1, the car parking situation in Berwick and how the end of Berwick Council will affect rural communities.