06 July 2004

Welsh school wipes the board

Polar explorer to present national prize

Pupils at a south Wales school are celebrating winning a £3000 interactive whiteboard and projector in a national map skills competition run by Ordnance Survey.

Top British explorer Andrew Cooney – the youngest person to walk to the South Pole – will present the prizes at Newbridge Comprehensive School near Caerphilly on Tuesday, 13 July at 11am.

The competition was part of the mapping agency’s Free Maps for 11-year-olds initiative which has seen more than 1½ million children receiving free Explorer maps to use in and out of the classroom. A further 750,000 children are expected to receive free maps in the autumn, making it one of the largest ever projects of its kind for British schools.

To win the competition pupils had to submit an article explaining how they used their free maps to improve map reading skills and to discover their local area.

"We have used the free maps given to us by Ordnance Survey to inspire the pupils to discover the area around Newbridge, and we are now looking forward to using our interactive whiteboard," said Graham Paget, Newbridge Comprehensive School Head of Geography.

"We’ve already found the resources provided by Ordnance Survey, like their MapZone website, very valuable in encouraging our pupils to be expert map users. Some pupils may even be inspired to follow Andrew Cooney’s example and explore more exotic locations!"

Elaine Owen, Ordnance Survey Education Manager said, "We are pleased that the school have used their free maps in such a constructive way. We especially liked the challenge quiz that was produced by the school to coincide with the issue of the free maps."

The competition runners up – William De Ferrers School in Essex and The Harrodian School in Barnes, London – both win a laptop computer.

Newbridge Comprehensive School’s winning article will appear on Ordnance Survey’s website; www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education and further information on the free maps for 11-year-olds can be viewed on the Ordnance Survey website www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/freemaps

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