01
CUSP Mixed Age Considerations
Cycle 2 Geography Continents, Oceans, UK counties, capital cities and surrounding seas (Year 1 content) Synopsis of the unit:
In this unit, pupils will learn to name and locate the world’s seven continents and five oceans. They will name, locate and identify characteristics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom and its surrounding seas. Pupils should have already experienced key knowledge delivered in the two Cycle 1 Compare UK and non-European location units, which cover content relating to the location of London as the capital city of England and the continents of the world.
*Reference lessons are available for some units where it is necessary to secure foundational knowledge so that all pupils are able to access the core content of the study. Delivering this unit of study to a mixed age class:
While the guidance below offers some thinking about how to approach the delivery of this unit to a mixed age class, it is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive. Teachers should take responsibility for determining the best way to deliver each unit to the gradient of attainment within their class, regardless of the age of pupils in the cohort. It is important to note that the vast majority of the curriculum end points are organised by Key Stage or phase (e.g. Y3/4) and therefore, it is helpful to look at curriculum content through this wider lens.
Prior knowledge:
This unit of study is a really important opportunity to revisit the foundational knowledge about cities and continents that pupils should already have met in Cycle 1. For those pupils who have met the Cycle 1 Compare UK and non-European locations studies already, it will be important to ensure that they are sufficiently challenged by the learning in this unit. Teachers should focus on how they integrate and connect new learning with their existing schemas of knowledge. This could include asking additional Thinking Hard questions of specific pupils e.g. How does this connect with what you already know about continents? Can you name and locate the continents of Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and South America? Can you name the capital city of England and locate it on a map?
Knowledge Notes:
The Securing Knowledge Notes have been designed for pupils to acquire foundational knowledge of key learning. This is the minimum expectations of the study for all pupils. The Advancing Knowledge Notes have been designed to sophisticate pupils’ understanding of the same content knowledge. For example, in Lesson 1 of this study, the Securing Knowledge Note requires pupils to name and locate the seven continents of the world. However, in addition to naming and locating the continents, the Advancing Knowledge Note requires pupils to identify notable countries and characteristics of each continent.
Extending thinking:
Another great way to extend pupils’ thinking is to focus on their use of disciplinary knowledge, in this case, how they talk and think like a geographer. This can be developed through teacher expectation about how pupils explain and elaborate on their understanding of acquired knowledge. For example, when pupils are naming and locating continents, England and London, they would explicitly draw upon their locational knowledge from the Cycle 1 units of study.
Thinking Hard tasks:
The base slide decks for each unit of study will provide a suggested Thinking Hard task that all pupils should be able to access. Teachers may wish to make an alternative selection of task from the menu provided to deploy to pupils who are able to further sophisticate their thinking about the core content knowledge. For example, in Lesson 1, where the suggested Thinking Hard task focusses on pupils identifying the continents, teachers could deploy the Observing task, which requires pupils to draw on their prior knowledge about the location of continents and deepen their understanding of where continents are located in relation to each other.<br>
