Year 9 Geography: What to Teach (England)

Your Teacher Information Pack for Year 9 Geography: every national curriculum statement, the tests and dates that matter, and trusted links. Tick what you're teaching and send it straight into the lesson plan maker.

The KS3 programme of study covers the whole key stage; it is not split by year.

Current. The government response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review (Nov 2025) says a revised national curriculum will be published by spring 2027 for first teaching from September 2028.

What to teach

Below is the official programme of study for Year 9 Geography: the statutory statements first, then any non-statutory notes and guidance, which schools don't have to follow.

Key stage 3 10 statutory statements

Introduction to Key stage 3 (official text)

Pupils should consolidate and extend their knowledge of the world’s major countries and their physical and human features. They should understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time. In doing so, they should become aware of increasingly complex geographical systems in the world around them. They should develop greater competence in using geographical knowledge, approaches and concepts [such as models and theories] and geographical skills in analysing and interpreting different data sources. In this way pupils will continue to enrich their locational knowledge and spatial and environmental understanding.

Pupils should be taught to:

Locational knowledge Statutory

Pupils should be taught to:

• extend their locational knowledge and deepen their spatial awareness of the world’s countries, using maps of the world to focus on Africa, Russia, Asia (including China and India), and the Middle East, focusing on their environmental regions, including polar and hot deserts, key physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities

Read this on GOV.UK

Place knowledge Statutory

Pupils should be taught to:

• understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of the human and physical geography of a region in Africa and a region in Asia

Read this on GOV.UK

Human and physical geography Statutory

Pupils should be taught to:

• understand, through the use of detailed place-based exemplars at a variety of scales, the key processes in:
  • physical geography relating to: geological timescales and plate tectonics; rocks, weathering and soils; weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present; and glaciation, hydrology and coasts
  • human geography relating to: population and urbanisation; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources
• understand how human and physical processes interact to influence and change landscapes, environments and the climate; and how human activity relies on the effective functioning of natural systems

Read this on GOV.UK

Geographical skills and fieldwork Statutory

Pupils should be taught to:

• build on their knowledge of globes, maps and atlases, and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field
• interpret Ordnance Survey maps in the classroom and the field, including using grid references and scale, topographical and other thematic mapping, and aerial and satellite photographs
• use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view, analyse and interpret places and data
• use fieldwork in contrasting locations to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data, using multiple sources of increasingly complex information

Read this on GOV.UK

Assessments and key dates

There are no national tests or checks in Year 9. Your school will use its own assessments.

Official documents

• National curriculum: geography programmes of study (GOV.UK)

Trusted free resources

• Oak National Academy – Free, full lesson sequences for KS3 (government-funded).
• BBC Bitesize – Short videos and quizzes by key stage and subject.

Links only: we don't copy their content and we aren't connected to these organisations.

More packs

Other subjects in Year 9: English, Maths, Science, Art and Design, Citizenship, Computing, Design and Technology, History, Languages, Music, PE.

Find another TIP · National curriculum overview

Questions teachers ask