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Key Stage 2 geography · Geographical skills and fieldwork

KS2 Ordnance Survey map symbols: a guide for parents

Ordnance Survey is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and its maps use a code of symbols, colours and lines to show the land. In Key Stage 2, children learn to read the key, to recognise common symbols for roads, paths, rivers, woods and buildings, and to use the maps to describe the human and physical features of places in the United Kingdom and to see how land use varies.

Ordnance Survey map symbols, explained

A map is a picture of a large area drawn very small, so it needs a shorthand. Symbols stand for real things, and the key, sometimes called the legend, explains each one. Children are taught to read the key before the map, just as a reader reads a title before a book. On Ordnance Survey maps, symbols include those for churches, car parks, viewpoints, picnic sites, campsites and public houses, as well as lines for roads, railways, footpaths and rivers. Colours help too: for example, blue is used for water and green for woodland, though the key is always the final guide.

Height is shown in a special way. A contour line joins places that are at the same height above sea level, and the numbers on the lines give the height in metres. The pattern of the lines tells a story. Lines close together mean steep ground, lines far apart mean gentle ground, and a set of rings getting smaller towards the middle is a hill top. Contour lines are printed in orange or brown on Ordnance Survey maps, and many maps also give the exact height of selected points. Children use the lines to name key physical features such as hills, mountains, valleys, coasts and rivers, the same features the curriculum asks them to locate in the United Kingdom.

Maps also show how land is used. Children compare areas packed with buildings and roads, which are towns, with open areas crossed by only a few lanes and paths, which are countryside, and they pick out woodland, moorland and coast using the key. Farmland is often left uncoloured on Ordnance Survey maps, so children learn to read an empty-looking area as fields rather than as nothing. They may place a map of their own area beside one from fifty or a hundred years ago and see how roads, housing and railways have changed, which links to the curriculum’s focus on land-use patterns and how they change over time. This can happen with real maps or with simplified class sets.

Maps come at different scales. A scale of 1:25,000 means that one centimetre on the map stands for 25,000 centimetres, or 250 metres, on the ground. Many walking maps use grid squares that are one kilometre wide. Children do not need to master scale calculations at this stage, but they should understand that a larger scale shows more detail and a smaller scale shows more area. They combine symbols with grid references and compass points to describe where things are and to plan routes, so this topic works hand in hand with those skills.

Words your child will hear

Symbol
A small picture or sign on a map that stands for a real feature.
Key (legend)
The box on a map that explains what each symbol, line and colour means.
Contour line
A line on a map joining places at the same height above sea level.
Scale
The link between a distance on the map and the real distance; 1:25,000 means 1 cm shows 250 m.
Topographical
To do with the physical shape and features of the land, such as hills and rivers.
Footpath
A route that people can walk along, often shown on a map with a dashed line.
Land use
What the land is used for, such as housing, farming, woodland or leisure.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 2, pupils should be taught to:

  • Use the 8 points of a compass, 4- and 6-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world
  • Name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked example: reading a map extract

A walker starts at the car park at the bottom of an imaginary Ordnance Survey extract and follows a footpath running north-east to a viewpoint. The car park is marked 100 m and the viewpoint is marked 160 m. The contour lines are spread out near the car park and packed closely together just before the viewpoint. A river runs along the east side, there is a patch of woodland beside the path and a church symbol sits in a village to the west. Describe the walk.

  1. Read the key first. Find the symbols for a car park, footpath, viewpoint, woodland, river and church. Check that you know what each looks like and what the dashed line means before you read the map.
  2. Find the start and the finish. The car park is the starting point and the viewpoint is the end. Use compass points to say that the route heads north-east.
  3. Work out the climb. The walker climbs from 100 m to 160 m, so the height gain is 160 − 100 = 60 metres.
  4. Use the contour lines. They are far apart near the car park, so the start is gentle, and close together just before the viewpoint, so the last part is steep. A walker should expect an easy start and a harder finish.
  5. Describe what is nearby. The river on the east side is a physical feature, the woodland is land covered by trees, and the church and village to the west are human features. Together with the car park and viewpoint, they show a mixture of land uses: woodland, settlement and leisure.

The walk starts at the car park at 100 m and follows a footpath north-east past woodland to a viewpoint at 160 m, a climb of 60 metres. The ground is gentle at first but steep at the end because the contour lines are close together. A river lies to the east and a village with a church to the west.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking contour lines are paths or roads

They are thin lines winding over the map, and children assume that anything drawn as a line is something you can walk along.

What helps: Explain that they are imaginary lines joining places at the same height. Walk up a slope together and talk about how, on a map, you would be crossing contour lines as you climb, even though there is nothing to see on the ground.

Believing that the same symbol means the same thing on every map

Once a child learns a symbol, it feels fixed. But different maps use different symbols and colours, and even Ordnance Survey maps vary with scale.

What helps: Always check the key first, even on a map your child knows. It builds the habit of reading before guessing.

Lines close together mean flatter land

Each line is a step in height, so lines packed tightly together mean many steps in a short distance. Children often read a crowded patch of lines as busy or complicated rather than as a steep slope.

What helps: Draw a hill from the side and mark its heights, then look at it from above. You can see that the steep side squeezes the contours together and the gentle side spreads them out.

A symbol shows the real size of a feature

A church symbol or a car park symbol can look big on the map, so children think the real thing is the size of the symbol.

What helps: Explain that symbols are drawn larger than life so they can be seen. Compare a symbol with the scale to see how small the real feature is.

How to help at home

  • Make a family key. Invent symbols for the rooms and furniture of your house or the features of your garden, and draw a map with a key. Swap with another person and see if they can read it.
  • Read a real map together. Borrow or buy a map of your local area or a place you are visiting. Find the key and spot five symbols, a river, a footpath and a hill. Check them against the places once you visit.
  • Model a hill in play dough. Build a small hill in layers, each layer a little smaller than the one below, then look down from above and draw round each layer on paper. The rings are contour lines, and your child can see why a steep side has lines close together.
  • Compare old and new. Look at an older map and a modern map of your town side by side, perhaps at the library. Ask what has changed in roads, housing and railways, and what has stayed the same.

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