How to teach the countries, cities and counties of the United Kingdom

Grade 2 to Grade 6

The United Kingdom is made of four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it helps to learn it in three layers: first the four countries and where they sit, then the major cities, then the counties of England. Build each layer on a blank map before moving to the next, so the map has a frame before the detail goes on.

How to teach it

1. Start with the four countries and their positions, Scotland in the north, England filling the south and east, Wales on the west, Northern Ireland across the sea to the west.
2. Add the major cities next, London in the south east, then Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds across England, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, Cardiff in Wales and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
3. Learn the English counties a region at a time (the South West, the South East, the East, the Midlands and the North), rather than all of England at once.
4. Use the coasts as anchors: Cornwall and Devon on the south west tip, Kent in the far south east, the flat Norfolk and Suffolk bulge on the east, Cumbria and Northumberland in the far north.
5. Watch the traps: a country's capital is not always its biggest city elsewhere, and the counties of England are many, so a curated set of the larger ones is enough to build the map sense.

Common mistakes

• Calling the whole United Kingdom 'England', when England is only one of its four countries.
• Confusing the two neighbours with similar names, East Sussex and West Sussex, or the many shires of the Midlands.
• Placing Northern Ireland on the island of Great Britain rather than on the island of Ireland.
• Mixing up a city with its county, for example putting Manchester or Liverpool in the wrong county.