Congratulations to St Columban's College, Kilkeel and St Olcan's Primary School, Armoy. Both schools scooped top prizes of £1000 projectors in the NI Maps competition organised by C2k and Land & Property Services.

NI Maps is an innovative application which allows pupils to view and interact with high-resolution images such as Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland maps and aerial photography over the internet. It uses mapping information from Land & Property Services and is licensed by C2k for all schools in Northern Ireland.

The NI Mas competition was open to primary, port primary and special schools across NI Ireland.

Primary 6 and 7 pupils from St Olcan's took part by researching and creating presentations about the River Bush, farming life and the local history of Armoy and then uploading their presentation to appropriate areas of Armoy on the NI Maps system.

Kilkeel pupils created a number of presentations looking at historic sites such as Greencastle Castle and modern facilities like Kilkeel Leisure Centre and uploaded these presentations to NI Maps.

Congratualting the schools John Wilkinson, Chief Executive, Land & Property Services said, "It was great to see first hand the presentations. The entries showcased how NI Maps can introduce pupils to mapping from an early age and encourage them to see new connections between information and places."

Director of C2k, Jimmy Stewart explained how NI Maps can add value right across the curriculum, "Although NI Maps is map based, it spans all the key subjects in the curriculum such as history, art and design, geography and environmental studies. The competition enabled us to encourage pupils to get a feel for their surroundings whilst introducing a new onine resource to botht he classroom and home which enhances pupils IT skills and enables cross-curricular learning."