All Saints Catholic High School

Year 9 |Geography| Curriculum Knowledge Map - 2025/26

Knowledge

Will Liverpool be under water in your lifetime? – The human causes of climate change, effects of climate change on our local area.

Why do we need to protect the Sefton Coast? - Features of the Sefton coast; causes of rising sea levels; advantages and disadvantages of hard and soft engineering

How did Africa become underdeveloped? – Human and Physical Features of Africa, Measures of economic development, Reasons for Africa’s level of development.

What are the environmental threats facing Asia? - Air pollution in Singapore, deforestation in Indonesia, desertification in Afghanistan, glacial retreat in Nepal, flooding in Pakistan

GCSE

Natural Hazards: What is a hazard? Climatological, Meteorological and Geophysical Hazards.

Geophysical Hazards: Structure of Earth and convection currents, Destructive, Constructive and Conservative Plate Boundaries, Haiti (LIC) Earthquake case study, New Zealand (HIC) Earthquake case study, Prediction, Planning and Protection from tectonic hazards.

Meteorological Hazards: Global Atmospheric Circulation Model, Distribution, Formation and Features of Tropical Storms, Typhoon Haiyan case study, Extreme weather in the UK, Somerset Flood (UK extreme weather) case study

Skills

Enquiry Skills: Setting a question, application of theory, conducting secondary research, data interpretation.

Literacy Skills: Comparing and Contrasting, Extended polemic, Extended writing, Justifying decisions, balanced arguments.

Cartographic: Atlas and OS Maps

Graphical: Select, construct and interpret a wide range of graphs

Numerical: Handling and interpreting data

Statistical: Central tendency, percentages, relationships

Cross Curricular and Curriculum Enrichment Opportunities

Writing a letter to the Metro Mayor for a climate change enquiry. Opportunities to Metro Mayor into school.

Africa topic links to Year 8 History on the study of the British Empire.

Origins topic links to Year 7 RE curriculum on the study of monotheistic religions.

	Knowledge and Knowledge Extension	Building On	Assessment
Autumn 1	Investigate whether Liverpool will be under water in our lifetimes. Understand how the enhanced greenhouse effect is leading to sea level rises. Evaluate the validity of evidence through an analysis of bias in newspaper articles.	Year 7 - Kirkby and Ormskirk enquiry Year 7 - Blue Planet - global environmental issues Year 8 - Microclimate enquiry Year 8 - Extreme weather in the USA	Low stakes homework quizzes Letter to Liverpool Metro Mayor (summative)
Autumn 2	Investigate how to protect the Sefton Coast from rising sea levels Advantages and disadvantages of hard and soft engineering along the Sefton Coast Evaluate which parts of the Sefton Coast will be protected from coastal flooding and which will be abandoned.	Year 7 - Kirkby and Ormskirk enquiry Year 7 - Rivers (flood management in Boscastle) Year 9 - Climate change (which areas should be protected from rising sea levels)	Low stakes homework quizzes Decision making enquiry on which parts of the Sefton Coast will be protected (Summative)
Spring 1	Explain the causes and effects of deforestation, desertification and glacial retreat. Link the thread of climate change through each of the three issues facing biomes. Understand what can be done to mitigate deforestation, desertification and glacial retreat.	Year 8 - Weather and biomes	Low stakes homework quizzes Issues facing biomes exam (Summative)
Spring 2	Globalisation
Summer 1	GCSE Definition of Hazards, Types of Hazards, Factors affecting risk. Plate Tectonic Theory, Global distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes, types of plate margin.	Year 8 - Weather Hazards Year 9 - Climate change	Low stakes homework quizzes Plate boundaries and tectonic hazards (33 marks)
Summer 2	Case studies of Haiti (LIC) and New Zealand (HIC), primary and secondary effects, immediate and long-term responses. Living with Hazards, 3 Ps of hazard management.	Year 9 - Africa Year 8 - Extreme weather in the USA	Low stakes homework quizzes End of Year 9 Exam - 60 marks