son thinks year 8 is pointless.

[caringdad66]

DS is about to start year 8.
Academically he achieved all his year 7 targets,it was attitude and behaviour that let him down.
Yesterday we were chatting and he said he was looking forward to going back to school because "year 8 is for having a laugh with my mates".
He also reckons the school are so busy looking after the new year sevens,and the year 11 GCSE takers,that they don't really care about year 8.
Is there any truth in his comments,and what can I do and say to keep him focused ?

He is right and clever to notice it.

Hopefully, he can also extend that to realise if he works in year 8 then he can use it as an opportunity to "bump himself up" and then go into year 9 flying.

The exam years come around very quickly and it will pay off to be as high as you can as year 8 is time you will never get back.

If he is meeting targets - tell him to rise to the challenge and crush them in year 8 and showing them what he is really made of!

There is the annual year 8 trip to Italy to look forward to I suppose.
But at ??800 it's not cheap.

At our school they choose options in Yr8, and a lot rides on it - you have to achieve in English, maths and the sciences to be allowed to do triple science, for example. So it's very much not a year for coasting, it's a year for hard work. I'm glad it's that way.

DD1 got a lot more homework in Yr8 than she did in Yr9 - granted the stuff she got in Yr9 was of a higher difficulty and intensity in preparation for Yr 10, but the sheer volume of work in Yr8 was considerable. DD2 is in her first proper week back and the work is already flooding in.

I'm a mother of teenagers and a TA in Scotland but our equivalent is 2nd year and it's definitely not pointless for our kids! The level of work goes up sharply, there are lots of tests to sit and the exam levels are being gauged towards the end of the year. The kids also do a whole lot of physical development while their emotional development fails to keep up. It's a year when pupils can be 'lost' to education if the pressure is let off them and social issues become too important. I've seen really bright youngsters lose their focus when the peer pressure kicks in and really struggle to get it back. Hugely important year in my opinion.