What is a ‘Knowledge Organiser’?

A Knowledge Organiser is a go-to document for a topic/unit of work: each one identifies the key information that children need to have learned by the end of a topic. It also acts as a tool to support children in retaining and retrieving knowledge for life-long learning.

How do they help teachers?

They are used as a planning tool- to plan the essential knowledge that children need to cover in the unit
• Key dates
• key people
• key events
• Key vocabulary and definitions, and key concepts- in ‘child-friendly’ language

How do they help children?

They provide the essential knowledge that children need to cover in the unit shared at the beginning so children know what they are going to be learning.
Knowledge Organisers help them to remember key dates, key people, key events, vocabulary and definitions and key concepts.
They can be used as a fun assessment tool to help remember the units.
They improve their ability to remember.
Knowledge Organisers help them to develop other skills- e.g. when writing a nonfiction report, if they already have the knowledge they can focus on the writing skills.

How do they help parents?

Parents will have a better understanding of what the children need to know. They will allow parents to build on their knowledge at home and provide an easy tool for parents to quiz children at home (and children to quiz parents!)

We have developed our own Knowledge Organisers to support the delivery of the curriculum, with each one starting with knowledge children should already know from previous learning. Each organiser also has a quiz, used in school, to help children recall the knowledge and a list of technical vocabulary with definitions. These knowledge organisers are designed carefully to match identified ‘key knowledge and vocabulary’ we want each class to know in each unit of work. This is a process which takes a significant investment in time and so Knowledge Organisers will be uploaded throughout the academic year as they are designed.