The maps on the home page are reproduced by kind permission of Kent Life. Peter Vujakovic has written several articles for the magazine and undertaken some mapping research during the Year of Mapping 2016. You can find out more here.

Here is an extract of the invitation letter to take part in this small project:

Dear Parent

We have been approached by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) to be involved in an article on maps being published in Kent Life magazine. This will be part of a series of articles celebrate the fact that 2016 is International Map Year. Peter Vujakovic, Professor of Geography at CCCU, is coordinating the series and would really like to feature a child’s map of Lenham as the map for the Christmas edition. It would be a great way to end the year with an example from the next generation of map makers! The articles are based on the fact that Lenham is at the geographic ‘Heart of Kent’ – hence the choice of our school to participate.

We would like all Year X children to have a chance to make a map. It is likely that extracts from only one or two maps will be published in the magazine, but we would hope to have a display of all the maps in the school. The university would also be keen to display the maps at some point as part of International Map Year.

What Peter is looking for is a sketch map of Lenham in which your child draws all the locations that mean something to them. There is no specified format – Peter simply wants the children to draw what they would regard as a ‘map’ of the village. Key features can be labelled (for example, street names, names of buildings). The map should be on an A4 sheet and it can be made using a variety of pens and colouring pencils. Please ensure your child’s name is clearly printed on the back of the map.

You can view a selection of children’s maps here:  School maps. The contributors have given permission to be identified as below. Our grateful thanks to Kent Life for their permission to use extracts from the maps and text.

1. Name withheld, class 6
2. Harry, class 6
3. Tamzin, class 6
4. Mary, class 6
5. Serena, class 6
6. Harry, class 6
7. Amelie, class 6
8. Saskia, class 6
9. Rachel, class 5

Some extracts from the Kent Life Magazine below.