Ordnance Survey is giving away ‘Free-Maps-for-11-year-olds’ to encourage children to get out and discover the world around them, Ordnance Survey Minister Iain Wright announced today.

Every Year 7 pupil in England, Scotland and Wales can receive a free 1:25 000 scale OS Explorer Map of their local area.

Since its launch in 2002 the initiative has had an overwhelming response. Each year, Ordnance Survey distributes over 700 000 maps to pupils through their schools. They also receive a copy of the leaflet "Map reading made easy peasy”.

Today Iain Wright and Vanessa Lawrence, from Ordnance Survey, visited Dyke House Comprehensive School in Hartlepool to hand over the maps to the pupils. Head Teacher, Bill Jordan, was also presented with a special gold covered Ordnance Survey map to mark the year that the 5 millionth map is to be given away.

Pupils from Dyke House’s Year 7 then took part in a treasure hunt at the school with a special ‘treasure map’ to help them find 11 clues that spelt out the location of a grand prize.

The free maps scheme is designed to encourage geography and environmental studies – both in and outside the classroom – helping to get pupils to explore their local community with their families and learn about practical map reading.

Ordnance Survey Minister Iain Wright said: “It’s fantastic that this year the five millionth 11-year-old will receive a free map of where they live and where their school is thanks to Ordnance Survey.

“With sat nav becoming increasingly common, this scheme encourages children to learn geography in their own backyard and develop that all important sense of direction”

This year Ordnance Survey is offering a special prize for the lucky school that orders the five millionth map. The winners will receive a commemorative map site-centred on their school. In addition, Tony Robinson and the Time Team will host a day out for the eight pupils who win the annual free maps competition.

Vanessa Lawrence CB, Ordnance Survey Director General and Chief Executive added: “Interpreting geographic information – on a paper map or on the computer screen – is a vital skill that will help children throughout their lives.

“The Free Maps for 11 year-olds scheme helps support these skills and we are delighted to be running it again for the seventh year.”

The free maps scheme has won an official Big Tick for responsible business practice and has been shortlisted for the Merrill Lynch Investing in Young People Award.

Teachers should place their order by 30 November 2008 on the Ordnance Survey free maps website – http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freemapsfor11yearolds.

One of Britain’s real assets is the Ordnance Survey. It is the world’s oldest mapping agency, with its origins found when Scotland was rebelling against the English in 1746. King George II commissioned a military survey of the Scottish highlands in the event of a rebellion clashing into a full blown war. By the 1790s the whole of Europe was in conflict because of the expansion plans of Napoleon, and there were real fears in this country that England might be swept up in the French Revolution. To try to combat this, the Government of the day ordered its defence ministry – the so-called Board of Ordnance – to begin a survey of England’s vulnerable southern coasts. The first accurate one-inch scale map of Kent was published in 1801, and within 20 years about a third of England and Wales had been mapped to a scale of one inch. It was done in a very primitive manner in the days without satellite and aircraft technology – I feel sorry for a certain Major Thomas Colby, who was later Ordnance Survey’s longest-serving Director-General – who walked 586 miles in 22 days on a reconnaissance mission in 1819. Rather him than me, as I’m not sure that my feet would stand that level of torture.

However, enough of the history lesson. Fast forward 200 years and I am now Minister for the Ordnance Survey, and have responsibility to explain the actions of the organisation to Parliament. I think the Ordnance Survey is a great asset with a really bright future. One of the big growth areas in the economy in the next few years will be the ongoing development of geographical positioning systems: we all know the massive explosion of satellite navigation systems in cars, and it is forecast that more personalised ‘sat navs’, ones that are downloaded to your mobile phone, will become increasingly common. In addition, a whole variety of things, from digging up the road in the correct place for gas mains, to correct delivery of goods, depends on accurate map making and map reading. The ability to read maps is an important skill that I believe is becoming more, not less important.

To help with this skill, every Year 7 pupil in England, Scotland and Wales can receive a free Ordnance Survey map of their local area. Since its launch in 2002, the initiative has had an overwhelming response, to the point where we are coming up to 5 million maps being given away.

I wanted to celebrate this achievement, and I wanted to do it in my own constituency. That is why today Vanessa Lawrence, the current Director General of Ordnance Survey and myself visited Dyke House School to hand over maps during a geography lesson. Pupils also took part in a treasure hunt to find 11 clues that will spell out the location of a special grand prize. Bill Jordan, as headteacher of Dyke House, was presented with a special gold-mounted Ordnance Survey map. I was pleased to have been able to provide this for a Hartlepool school, especially one like Dyke House which has taken advantage every year of this special offer.

The free maps scheme and treasure hunt are designed to encourage geography and environmental studies – both in and outside the classroom – helping to get pupils to explore their local community with their families and learn about practical map reading. I hope that we encourage children to learn geography in their own backyard and develop that important sense of direction, in every possible sense.