Knowledge Organisers

The purpose of knowledge organisers is to present essential knowledge, clear diagrams, explanations, key vocabulary and key terms on one document. Research shows that our brains remember things more efficiently when we know the ‘bigger picture’ and can see the way that knowledge links together. Making links, essentially, helps information move into our long-term memory. We have knowledge organisers for History, Geography, French and Music and they provide a very clear outline of exactly what we expect pupils to learn in each subject

We hope that you can use knowledge organisers to support your child in: understanding exactly what they are supposed to learn and remember; to know what language they should use when discussing learning at home and to know how to support your child/ren in learning about a subject or learning theme.

Here are 5 fun ways to use knowledge organisers with your child/ren.

Flashcards: get pupils to make a set of flashcards that include all of knowledge items for one section. They can then use them in spare moments for self-quizzing

Paired retrieval: get pupils to quiz each other on a knowledge item. Partner A reads out one part of the knowledge item (for example, ‘The Sea of Tranquility’) and Partner B responds with the associated information (‘a large, dark area of the moon where the astronauts of Apollo 11 landed’)

Self-quizzing: ask pupils to use a blank piece of paper to cover one column of a table on the knowledge organiser, give them a few minutes to write down the associated definitions to each term, then allow them to check their answers

Online quizzing: use an online quizzing platform such as Quizlet or Kahoot to create questions linked to the knowledge organiser, which pupils can complete independently or for homework
‘Just a Minute’: based on the popular Radio 4 show, ask pupils to try to list facts from their knowledge organiser for 1 minute straight, without repetition, hesitation or deviation

KNOWLEDGE ORGANISERS BY YEAR - Click on the Darwins for each year.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6