The National Curriculum for Geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

KS1 locational knowledge:

• Name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans
• Name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas

KS2 locational knowledge:

• Locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries, and major cities
• 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
• Identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle, the Prime/Greenwich Meridian and time zones (including day and night)

 Year 1

Let’s explore London

My world and Me

• Use maps and a globe to identify the continents and oceans and understand that both a map and a globe show the same thing.
• Locate the continents on a paper map.

Year 2

Let’s go on Safari

Seas and coasts

• Use maps and globes to locate.
• Identify and label countries and capital cities.

Year 3

In the desert

Volcanoes

• Use maps to locate countries of Europe.
• Study maps to make assumptions about the different areas of Europe.
• Using maps, locate the Equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• Consider the countries and climates that surround these lines and discuss the relationships between these and the countries.

Year 4

Spain and Catalonia

Investigating India

• Identify the different hemispheres on a map.
• Locate and label different countries/continents in the Northern and Southern hemisphere.
• Use maps to identify different climate zones.

Year 5

South America

Rivers

• Confidently use maps, globes and Digimaps.
• Use atlases/maps to describe and locate places using 4 figure grid references.
• Locate the Equator on a map, atlas and globe and draw conclusions about the climates of countries on the Equator and on the tropics
• Use maps to locate features of the UK e.g. rivers, mountains, large cities.

Year 6

Exploring Africa

Water World

• Use 6 figure grid references to identify countries and cities in the world and the longest rivers.
• Select the most appropriate map for different purposes e.g atlas to find a country, Digimaps to find a village.
• Explain the climates of given countries in the world and relate this to knowledge of the hemispheres, the Equator and the Tropics.
• Locate, draw conclusions and compare given locations
• Use maps to identify longitude and latitude.
• Study maps of the Africa to identify environmental regions. Compare and contrast these regions.