Maps (KS1 – KS2)

KS1 KS2 Geography

Maps run right through the geography curriculum, from simple picture maps in Year 1 to six-figure grid references and Ordnance Survey maps by Year 6. Here’s what the curriculum expects at each stage, and where to find lessons and resources to teach it.

What children learn about maps at KS1 and KS2

What the national curriculum expects

Map skills appear in both key stages under geographical skills and fieldwork. At KS1, pupils should use world maps, atlases and globes to identify the UK and the countries, continents and oceans studied, use simple compass directions and directional language, and use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks, devise a simple map and construct basic symbols in a key. At KS2, pupils should use maps, atlases, globes and digital mapping to locate countries and describe features, and use the eight points of a compass, four and six-figure grid references, symbols and key including Ordnance Survey maps.

Key knowledge and concepts

Within this topic, children build map skills that develop year on year:

Choosing the right tool, and finding places on each

From the four cardinal points to all eight

Seeing places from above, and drawing simple maps

Reading and building the shorthand maps use

Locating a square on a map

Locating a precise point

Reading the maps used across the UK

Locating anywhere on Earth, and understanding time zones

Where this topic sits within KS1 and KS2

Map skills aren’t taught as a single unit. They run through the whole geography curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6, developing from simple directional language towards precise grid references and digital mapping. Most schools teach map skills alongside other geography topics rather than in isolation.

How to access this topic

Maps 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.

Find out more about the curriculum

Explore the Geography Curriculum

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