What children learn about the United Kingdom at KS1 and KS2
What the national curriculum expects
The UK appears in locational knowledge at both key stages. At KS1, pupils should name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas. At KS2, pupils should 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.
Key knowledge and concepts
Within this topic, children build knowledge of the UK that develops from KS1 to KS2:
The four countries
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Capital cities
London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast
Surrounding seas
The seas around the UK, and where they are
Counties and cities
The counties and major cities of the UK
Geographical regions
How the UK divides into regions, and what defines each
Topographical features
Hills, mountains, coasts and rivers across the UK
Land use
How land across the UK is used, and why
Change over time
How the UK's landscape and land use have changed
Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2
The UK appears in both key stages, so children return to it with growing detail. KS1 covers the four countries, capitals and surrounding seas. KS2 goes considerably further, into counties, regions, topography and land use.
How to access this topic
The United Kingdom 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.
Full curriculum
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