Fieldwork (KS1 – KS2)

KS1 KS2 Geography

Fieldwork is statutory at both key stages, and it’s the part of geography children remember. It’s also the part most often squeezed out by timetable pressure. Here’s what the curriculum actually asks for, and how to make it manageable.

What children learn about fieldwork at KS1 and KS2

What the national curriculum expects

Fieldwork appears in geographical skills and fieldwork at both key stages. At KS1, pupils should use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment. At KS2, pupils should use fieldwork to observe, measure, record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies.

Key knowledge and concepts

Within this topic, children build the skills that make fieldwork purposeful:

Looking carefully, and knowing what to look for

Framing a question fieldwork can actually answer

Collecting accurate data in the field

Drawing what you see, and annotating it usefully

Representing a place accurately from above

Presenting fieldwork data clearly

Using cameras, apps and digital mapping in the field

Turning what you collected into an answer

Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2

Fieldwork is statutory in both key stages but isn’t a standalone unit. It’s designed to be taught through other geography topics, most naturally alongside maps, settlements and land use, and any study of the local area. Expectations build from simple observation at KS1 to measuring, recording and presenting data by upper KS2.

How to access this topic

Fieldwork doesn’t sit on its 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.

Find out more about the curriculum

Explore the Geography Curriculum

Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.