Our country and its flag
Geography · Early Years · The School
A flag is a symbol
A FLAG stands for a country. A badge can stand for a school in the same way. You do not need to read any words to know a flag. The colours and the pattern tell you. Every country picks its own flag. No two look exactly the same.
Our flag
The flag of the United Kingdom is called the UNION JACK. It is red, white and blue. It is made from crosses, laid over each other. You will see it flying outside schools. You will see it on stamps too. You will see it at big sporting events, when a British team plays.
Spotting other flags
Look at pictures of five different flags. Some use stripes. Some use a circle. Some use a star. Each one uses colours and shapes in its own way. That helps people tell countries apart at a glance, from far away, without reading a single word.
Look at three flags side by side. The first is red, white and blue, made of crosses. That is the Union Jack. The second is red and white, with a big red circle in the middle. That is Japan's flag. The third is green, white and orange, in three stripes. More than one country uses that pattern. So even patterns can repeat, though the exact shades rarely match. Sort flags by their pattern, not just their colour. That is how you tell similar ones apart.