Trade and natural resources (KS2)
Trade and natural resources is where geography connects to the things in children’s own kitchens and pockets. Where does this come from, who made it, and what did they get for it? Here’s what the curriculum expects and where to find lessons and resources to teach it.
What children learn about trade and natural resources at KS2
What the national curriculum expects
Trade and natural resources are named in KS2 human geography. Pupils should describe and understand key aspects of human geography including types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water. The curriculum doesn’t specify particular commodities or countries, so schools choose examples that suit their pupils.
Key knowledge and concepts
Within this topic, children build knowledge across what the world trades and why:
What is trade
Why countries trade, and what they exchange
Trade links
How goods move between countries, and the routes they take
Fair trade
What fair trade means, and why it exists
Natural resources
Energy, food, minerals and water, and where they're found
Energy sources
Renewable and non-renewable energy, and where each comes from
Water as a resource
Why access to water shapes where and how people live
Imports and exports
What the UK buys and sells, and who with
Resources and the environment
The impact of extracting and moving resources
Where this topic sits within KS2
The National Curriculum doesn’t set a year group. Trade and natural resources sits within KS2 human geography, alongside settlement and land use, and is often taught in upper KS2 where pupils can handle the economic ideas.
How to access this topic
Trade and natural resources don’t sit on their own in the curriculum. The Cornerstones geography curriculum is fully sequenced from EYFS through Year 1 to Year 6, so you can see what comes before, what follows and how the whole picture fits together. We’ve done the thinking, so your planning time goes into teaching, not sequencing.
Full curriculum
Subject curriculum
Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.
Ready to bring the wider curriculum to life?
See how the full Cornerstones Geography Curriculum sequences topics like this one across every year group.