The Year 5 topic this term has been ‘Blast to the past.’ In geography we have used this to study maps and map skills comparing old with new and seeing the differences in land use over the years. One of the topics studied has been 6 figure grid references and with the school being blessed with such wonderful grounds the geography department have created a 12 symbol orienteering course to assess the pupils understanding of mapping.
With modern day technology such as sat-navs and smartphone maps, do we still need to be able to have map reading skills or is this a skill that is no longer required? Here are some arguments about why we should still learn to read maps – LINK. What do you think?