To take a job working with year 9s

[Surelyitstimenow]

For secondary school teachers out there and parents of year 9s.
I'm interested in applying for a job working with year 9s to support teaching staff in the classroom. Some of it will be supporting behaviour management.
By this age, have the kids settled down in their behaviour and are more grown up and mature? Will they be a calm, well developed age group to work with?
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?
I'm thinking about the behaviour of year 9 boys more specifically, based on the assumption that girls have generally matured in their behaviour at a younger age than boys (stereotype I know)!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Y9 have never been an easy year group. They're not mature and they're not focused... tbh some of our y11s have got 6 weeks to do a lot of growing up...

However in defence of y9, some of them do get past peak silly and begin to mature. They tend to get better as the school year progresses (unlike y7 degenerating towards the teen years and the final mutation to teenagers in y8). I find our difficult y7 & y8 classes tend to have a lot of mob mentality, whereas y9 is more segmented. There's a lot of passive resistance, but they're more focused on their friendship groups and it's easier to chip away at individuals. They're less needy and stronger members of the class are more self sufficient.

There are delightful young people in every year and every class. There are pains in the bum too, but most are still pleasant people to know. Some might resist but come round with patience and experience. Support staff often have an advatage over teachers as the friction of learning is eased. The number of actually nasty, malicious young people is a tiny proportion.

Working in secondaries is not easy. Very far from it. It needs patience, and wild optomism, but it's exciting, stimulating, satisfying and never dull. I'm far more cynical than I was when training 20+ years ago, but working with young people is still fresh and exciting.

I teach at bottom set Y9.

It takes a while to do the register as they can't sit still and be quiet. They lack respect for each other.

They fart. Belch out loud. Are rude to each other. Argue. Lack social skills.

But a good TA makes all the difference. Back the teacher up with behaviour management.

Ha, ha, ha, yeah no.
They are, as has already been said, the worst year group. They're sort of stuck in the middle, can't be pathetic immature dicks like in Y7/8 but not the Billy big bollocks Y10/11's, they therefore behave like utter twats for no real reason.

Year 9's are 100% the most challenging year group to teach, 26 years teaching experience to back that up. I am currently a y9 tutor, expect lots of boundary pushing. Teens that think they are adults but don't yet have the maturity to back it up.

Dear innocent OP.

Year 9s are the worst by a country mile.

I think, quite honestly, if you have to ask then you aren’t experienced or skilled enough for the job.

My year 9 son is a little shit at the moment. I love him but he’s moody rude disrespectful and occasionally pleasant but has an answer for everything

Y9 needs to be a year out to go home and get over yourself.

I would say that Year 9 is peak time for silly behaviour. Especially in option subjects which they have not chosen. Lots of hormones flying around.

My daughter is in year 9 and according to her,the boys are savages. Especially at lunchtime throwing food around the place 😩 You'd expect them to be a lot more mature by now but no 🙄

Just want to say that secondary school teachers really don’t like teaching year 9s. They are the worst. Especially as the year goes on and they know they aren’t going to take your subject for GCSE.

Ok. Sounding like a bad idea.
To everyone saying "Worst year group" can you give me specific examples? Worst year group why? What are they specifically doing that makes them so bad?
Lots and lots of people saying worst year group, but could I have examples of actual behaviour?
Only 1 person has answered to say year 9 boys are mature and studious.
Damn. I really wanted to go for this job.

You do realise this was sarcastic?

Look, year 9's are hideous, for all the reasons listed above. Individually they can be hilarious, kind and extremely needy. But as a group they are... difficult. And if you apply for a job involving behaviour management, you need to understand this

Not at all. Kids at all age are naughty.

In the nicest possible way, you said part of the job was behaviour management which implies there is behaviour to manage and you seem to be looking for some. reassurance that there won’t be any so it really doesn’t sound like this would suit you.

Year 9 is the most unstable year. They feel they have been at school forever, and will be there forever, hormones have fully kicked in and yet, there is still a large degree of immaturity at play.

So, good luck!

Yes this. If the class were a lovely quiet bunch of angels the job wouldn't exist? Year 9 is hard work. But teenagers can be great to work with. The role is surely to build relationships, you would potentially the consistent adult in the room and the job is to work with staff and management to help with pupils. I have a few friends who do similar and they love it but you would need to enjoy teenagers and want to support them.

Our Year 9s* at school do this thing where they pretend you aren’t talking to them and carry on screaming/laughing/chatting with their friends whilst turning their backs on you. IT IS INFURIATING. When you bring them up on it they look at you like you’re an alien species. This is a particularly tough Year 9, though, we’ve had better previously.

*Not all Year 9s, just those whose parents have avoided putting in proper boundaries.

In my 15 years of teaching I have always found that it entirely depends on the cohort of students.

I am a music teacher and I know that many students don't really care. This year - I teach 5 different year 9 classes and id say in those classes very few are actually picking GCSE music. However - I have very few behaviour problems within those classes and they are all (with the exception of about 5 students - out of 150) lovely. Last year though, I taught about the same number of students - and it was terrible. Is the job a pastoral assistant? Because the job will move with the students....

People can’t give you specific examples of ‘year 9 behaviour’ like year 9s are some homogenous group. That’s a silly request.

Respectfully, you sound naive. With the state of education that it is, no one has the money to pay for an additional body in a room to support ‘nice, mature’ students.

There is always the chance you could be working with some gorgeous, lovely children who are weak readers or something. More likely, you’d be wrangling hormonal teens who don’t want to be in Geography (other unwanted subjects are available) into labelling a volcano when they’d rather be on TikTok.

If you’re keen, go for it and suss it out at interview though. You can tell a lot about a school just by being in a corridor at lesson changeover.

Why did you want to go for it?

yeargroups vary but no, generally y9 is not a light switch to maturity.

but if you think about heat attracted you to the job that might help? Tbf it sounds like you want to work with adults rather than children

Obviously this is a generalisation but Y9 is peak hormones and when friends (and boyfriends/girlfriends) become far more important than parents. Indeed adults are often viewed as the enemy. Added to this, as someone has also pointed out, they are getting ready to drop subjects and therefore don’t see why they have to focus in those areas.
All this chips away at any respect for teachers and they are obsessed with what their peers think of them. As everything with behaviour, it’s often not the big incidents, but the general ethos and constant feeling that you are not on the same side that is the most difficult. Add in the teen girl drama, mental health, anxiety and school refusal problems you find in any school and it becomes very tricky.
i’ve been a teaching Head of Year from Y8-Y11 (same cohort) and Y9 was the year that almost broke me.
Having said all that they are also funny, surprising and it’s great to make a difference to some who are struggling but go with your eyes open and don’t expect an easy time!

Have you worked with children before? The behaviour depends on the needs of the child but generally they’re all full of raging hormones and getting ready to drop subjects that they aren’t interested in.

Because they've found their feet in the school, are full of hormones and overly confident, and GCSEs seem like a lifetime away so no desire to study.
That said, they are bloody hilarious too. But you don't sound suited to this role.

It’s peak be vile to your friends time with the girls. They’re no angels