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Vanessa Lawrence CB, Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, visited St Marks CE Primary School, Southampton on Tuesday 19 October to see how the organisation can help young people develop their real-world skills and aspirations.

Ordnance Survey was taking part in the first national Visit our Schools and Colleges campaign, where schools are inviting business leaders to visit and discuss how they can be more actively involved in the education, employability and motivation of young people aged 5–19. The campaign has a practical focus on things such as; mentoring, careers advice, work experience and becoming a school governor.

Vanessa Lawrence is the first woman to head Great Britain's national mapping agency and one of the youngest Director Generals in Ordnance Survey’s 219-year history. Vanessa says about the campaign: “It is really pleasing that young people are being offered the support of local businesses and organisations to help develop the important skills, knowledge and confidence required for their future working lives. Ordnance Survey is delighted to support the Visit Our Schools and Colleges campaign and to have the opportunity to further build relationships with schools and help champion the future workforce of the region is invaluable.

“The initiative highlights the pivotal role businesses can play in the education sector. At Ordnance Survey we have been proactively working in the education sector for a number of years. After I joined Ordnance Survey we launched the Free Maps for 11-year-olds project (2002), supporting the national curriculum by getting more 1:25 000 scale maps into schools. Since the launch of the project we have distributed over 6 million maps to schools and this year launched a new online mapping service for the classroom called Digimap for Schools.

“The campaign is a great way to either start, or continue, to work with local schools and build a mutually beneficial partnership.”

Anne Steele Arnett, Headteacher at St Marks Primary School says: “Our children are becoming more aware of who they are, what their own interests and skills are and just as importantly, they are able to recognise the talents that other people have too. It's our aim to provide opportunities to develop a creative curriculum where the skills and knowledge development enable the children to use and apply them productively and appropriately to demonstrate their ability to reflect, be resilient, show resourcefulness, and take responsibility. We hope that this will go some way to enable the children to serve their communities, give them an insight into the world they live in and demonstrate that their education is in fact, a 'ticket for choice' in the future. I could have the next Prime Minister sitting in front of me in assembly; it’s so exciting to think what our pupils will go on to do. The Visit our Schools and Colleges campaign highlights that we need to get to know our city and all the vocations and organisations within it, in order to give the pupils choice in later life.”

This term St Marks has become a Primary School taking children from age 4, from September 2011 it will also have a pre-school nursery. Friday 22 October sees the opening of the new Tree Tops block and Woodside Early Years and Year 1 provision.

Amid the economic challenges facing us all, the campaign offers a wonderful opportunity to celebrate what employers and schools are doing together to make a real difference for our young people and inspire many more employers to follow their lead.

So far 650 schools and colleges, of all types, are taking part and 650 employers of all sizes and sectors. Of the hundreds of employers there are 90 chief executives and chairmen from many of the UK’s leading and FTSE 100 companies. Visit the campaign website at www.visitourschools.org 

Notes to editors: 

1. Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals.

2. To download this news release visit www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/media. There you can also subscribe to our RSS feed. 

3. Ordnance Survey, the OS Symbol and OS are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey.