To take a job working with year 9s

I've taught for more than 30 years and I love Y9, mostly because I enjoy the topics I do with this year. I am the only one in the school who does, but I quite like a gobby 14 year old. They make me laugh (though not often in front of them)

However, you have to be prepared for the fact that, as many others have said, this is a notoriously difficult year group to deal with. They aren't mature. The boys still find willies and poo hilarious, or farting in front of you. If we are going to generalise then the girls are 'mean' and divide into cliques who are appalling to anyone who isn't one of them, doesn't meet their beauty/fashion standards, is a 'geek' or a 'swot'. Snapchat bullying is at its worst. Anorexia and self harm is always a worry. Lots and lots of mental health anxieties and drama.

Boys jeer and punch at each other, but can be surprisingly sweet to old ladies (me) at times. I can remember one saying to me earnestly (I'm 60) "I'm sorry I punched him in front of you, Miss but he's just a cunt" and genuinely meaning this as an apology. In addition you can be really firm with a teenage boy and come down on them like a ton of bricks and then tend to grin and think, 'Huh, I got caught!'. They will cheerfully shout 'Awright Miss?' when they see you in a corridor later in the day, having forgotten all about the fact that you have issued them a detention. Girls on the other hand will remember it and give you the evil eye forever...

I'm generalising obviously, but this is pretty common. I still like Y9, but I've been dealing with them for a long, long time and have no concerns about my behaviour management skills.

@Surelyitstimenow why don't you apply, you could get it, see how you get on.
Schools are all very different - I still think it'd be a tough job, but who knows if it's for you or not ?
( is it an agency or applying directly to the school?)

Sorry, forgot to write <lighthearted>

A school actually employing someone to manage behaviour is likely to have significant behavioural issues to manage. There's no money to employ someone for the fun of it.

Year 9's are the worst for behaviour, obnoxiousness and unpleasantness by a significant margin! Run for the hills!

They are 13 and 14. Of course they haven't matured. Y9 is often the worst year.

With the greatest of respect I'm not sure how you'd be qualified to support the teacher with the behaviour if you have no idea about teenagers.

I totally agree.

One thing I remember being struck by in my early teaching years was the amount of manhandling the Year8/9 boys do. They grapple with each other in corridors, jump on each other in hallways, grab each others heads, smack each other with rulers, it’s like a wildlife documentary.

Once I said ‘Boys, boys, can you just keep your hands off each other for five minutes’ and they didn’t know how to take that - quite a few of them were like ‘euw’.

YABVU to contemplate this job if you needed to ask the question.

Has all the chattering in class, physical horseplay, silly behaviour and chat back stopped by the time they hey to year 9?

No. It’s at its peak.

Asked my yr 9 DS. When he got up off the floor from laughing, he said no. The girls talk more than the boys, they just don't get told off for it. There is a boy in his non sets who throws his bag and chairs, swears at everyone and storms out of classes crying. There is also some horrendous bullying by mean girls.

I am going to go against the grain here. I'm a secondary school teacher and would choose to work with y9 over 7/8s everytime. Yes they are more hormonal than the y7/8 but I find them better to chat with, i find them funny, i actually enjoy my lessons with them.

Year 9 was awful for DS - all the boys are in various stages of puberty and trying to vie for top dog!

IME horseplay is at its pinnacle in Year 9 kids

Year 9 girls: rampant hormones, sensitive to criticism, loads and loads of peer bullying and you will be forever sorting out rifts in friendship groups and group chat issues.

Year 9 boys: still very much children emotionally but starting to resemble overgrown puppies, lots of physical contact between them and peers as they try to assert their dominance, also they start to stink really badly in this year, though by year 11 that starts to even out.

I am still haunted by a Year 9 class I had back in 2009, it was like fucking Whack A Mole every lesson with them all popping up to disrupt.

My current year 9’s are a dream. Last years were a nightmare. It depends on the kids themselves not simply their age. Year 9 can be a transitional year friendship wise. It’s also an age where the hormones are definitely kicking in. I would go for it 💜

This is why schools that can, send all of their Year 9s off to their Forest School Campus in remote places void of phone coverage.

Year 9s gathering wood, learning to survive on their own cooking, washing their own clothes and safely traversing long trecks in the wilderness promotes them taking directions, working in teams and becoming independent.

It removes them far from sight while at their worst.

From experience as a secondary school teacher Year 9 is the worst year group (this is in any school) - hormones flying about combined with GCSE courses not quite started in all subjects
Stay away if possible!

They are the worst honestly - they’ve got past being the youngest and everything being a novelty but aren’t at the stage of doing exams, so are a bit like a problem middle child, so to speak. Probably as well a higher proportion have hormones racing around, so I guess that won’t help.

There are of course lovely kids in year 9 but I’m generalising.

All secondary teachers say Year 9s are the worst.

DD is Y9
She is sensible and studious and not badly behaved. She loves watching the drama, but is very seldom involved. The girls seem to be more mature than the boys, apart from the Mean Girls, who are just horrid.
On the other hand, there still seems to be a fair amount of horseplay and backchat. DD is full of daily tales of who got sent out of their classes, and the events leading up to that. (DD is in top set for everything streamed; this is the first destination for people bring sent out of class, before the HoY office).

I get that year 7 and even year 8 they are still young, but by year 9 has the immature behaviour all stopped? Has all the chattering in class, physical horseplay, silly behaviour and chat back stopped by the time they hey to year 9?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA god, no.

Has all the chattering in class, physical horseplay, silly behaviour and chat back stopped by the time they hey to year 9?

OP, I'm guessing you haven't worked with teenagers before 😂

Kindly, if you're worried about "silly behaviour, chat back and physical horseplay" this job is not for you, because those things are not only par for the course, they are very much at the lower end of behaviour issues you will encounter.

You've asked for specific examples so here is an incomplete list of behaviour issues I dealt with from (but not limited to) Y9 when I worked in secondary

• Swearing (at each other and staff)
• Racist, homophobic and misogynist language
• Total refusal to complete work or follow instructions
• Refusing to attend lessons
• Absconding
• Vandalising school property
• Fighting, not "horseplay" kids actually properly hurting each other resulting in injury
• Threats of violence against teachers
• Filming/recording Teachers on phones
• Constant social media related nonsense
• Vaping and smoking on school site
• Cannabis and alcohol related incidents
• Sexual harassment, cat-calling, upskirting, sexualised comments and a couple of incidents of indecent exposure

Exactly what I was going to say!!!!

It’s the year we ignore who they were and by year 10 and 11 enjoy who they’ve become!