Knowledge Organisers

At Rosliston CE Primary School, we use Knowledge Organisers across our curriculum. 

We create two versions of our Knowledge Organisers; one for school staff and one for our pupils. We've uploaded the teachers' version on this page, for our families to look at to see what our pupils will be learning about in their current topic. 

The pupil version is displayed on the classroom walls during the topic and stuck into the children's books at the start of the topic. Knowledge Organisers act as a prompt/support for our children, overview of the topic and as an assessment tool.

Assessment

We ask our pupils to 'RAG' rate their understanding of elements of the topic at the beginning, telling us if they feel 'red' (not confident/unsure), 'amber' (they understand a little) or 'green' (really confident) about either vocabulary, significant figures, important dates or other associated facts and information. This provides a baseline for the teachers to gauge the pupils' understanding at the start of the topic.

During the topic, teachers will cover the material in the Knowledge Organiser (informed by the National Curriculum), ensuring they refer back to the children's RAG ratings and formatively assess the pupils as we move through the topic.

At the end of the topic, the children are asked to complete their Knowledge Organiser assessment; this could be defining vocabulary, describing a significant figure and their achievements, explaining what happened on important dates or filling-in missing information about a range of facts or statistics, related to the topic. This summative assessment allows our teachers and support staff to ascertain how well the pupil has understood and retained important knowledge and skills throughout the topic. 

You can see examples of both teacher and pupil Knowledge Organisers below, to see how they work! 

We don't use Knowledge Organisers in our Reception class, as our children are busy exploring topics and themes, along with being encouraged to engage in their own interests, in line with the Early Learning Goals. Our EYFS children are regularly assessed, mostly through informal observation and evidence gathering, following the Reception Long Term Plan (available on our Curriculum page). 

If you have any questions about our Knowledge Organisers or how we use them in school, please contact your child's class teacher. Thank you!