Year 9 - 2022/2023 Support Thread

[QueenMabby]

Hi
Having got a lot out of the thread for my ds who's just finished year 11 I though I'd start one for anyone wanting support/chat about dcs in year 9 from September.

Some schools will be starting GCSE syllabi this year and for those that don't there'll be options later in the year.

I have a dd starting year 9 in September. Her favourite subjects are languages and chemistry. We've not taken gcse options yet - that joy is to come.

Hi @icanbewhatiwant and welcome!

We will take options March time I think. Spanish is the main language for DD's school and then they have to pick a second from French or German in year 8 but they only have to carry one forward to gcse.

Dd does Spanish and German (and Latin and Greek!) and wants to take both at gcse. Also all three sciences - our options are all three as individuals or combined science (double? Takes up two slots anyway).

Our school only sets for maths - otherwise classes depend on options.

Every 2 weeks Ds has Q group where they learn something new. His class are learning Russian. Thats definitely different. But he will only take one language at gcse. They can only do triple science if in top set at our school. Ds1 did triple science. He then went on to study biology at university. Ds2 did double science as he wasn't so keen on the sciences, he is doing a history degree. Ds3 enjoys science like ds1.

Russian sounds interesting.
DD's favourite subjects are languages and science.
I have a ds in sixth form doing maths physics and chemistry but he loathed languages!

My ds did Spanish French and Latin last year. This year he dropped Spanish. He says he’s going to drop all languages for year 10. They don’t have to take a language at GCSE, personally I think it’s a shame because he’s fairly good at French, but it has to be his choice.

Ds1 did triple and regrets it.
He's doing history and politics at University.

That is a shame @MissyB1 - contrast that with my ds who had to take a language. He hated every minute, got a 4 (rest of GCSEs were 8/9) and it was a pointless waste of his time!

I wish he had been able to drop it.

@Thatsasmashingblouseyouvegoton I don't think ds1 regrets triple. But he wasn't keen on chemistry. He could still have done biology at A level with double science. So I guess the 3 aren't always needed. Maybe if they want to go to medical school or be a vet then 3 may be better. Ds2 really likes politics, I'm surprised he didn't want to study history with politics at university. He started with history and philosophy, but dropped the philosophy.

Hi, please may join in?

I have a DS in year 9 (and a DD in year 8 in the same school!) and things are a bit wobbly so far.
He's been in detention quite a bit for various reasons not all of them completely justified. His school is really clamping down on homework etc, no second chances.
We haven't had the options talk yet. DS knows what he wants to drop but doesn't know what he wants to choose!
He definitely doesn't want to do art and history.
RE is compulsory in his school (not a religious school so we are not happy about this.
He's technically minded, so I think he should choose triple sciences if he can. DH and I are both scientists (DH is a science teacher) so can support him if necessary. He'll definitely do music GCSE has he's doing grade 6 piano, so in with a good chance.

Welcome @DataColour.

Sorry to hear your ds is having a bit of a tricky time. I think many schools really start cracking down from year 9. I'm sure he'll learn as the year goes on. Is he a homework dodger or is it just that he's a bit disorganised?

Re options knowing what he doesn't want to do is a good start! My dd not doing art/DT/computing but like your ds likely to do all three sciences and music.

It's half term for us and we've just had grades. They're a farce. They've moved to grading achievement from 9-1 like GCSEs but don't seem to have any standardisation across teachers in the year group.

Dd got a 6 in Latin. Her Latin teacher said she would not be awarding anything higher than a 6. So far so good. This has not applied to other subjects however. She got a 9 in Biology. She's excellent at biology, but probably stronger at Latin. It's so frustrating. I will be emailing in to the school to point out that this lack of standardisation across the year group has rendered the grades effectively meaningless. This doesn't really matter this early in the school year but does need to be looked at sooner rather than later I think.

The crack down issue is basically because ofsted are now catching up on inspections after covid and the DofE made their remit much broader and its far more difficult to obtain a good grading.

The DofE have explicitly stated that they want all schools to be in a MAT by 2030 and putting schools into requires improvement/special measures enables the RSC to to put those schools into MATs of their choice - the school get no say.

I imagine all schools are cracking down on behaviour, uniform and attendance.

Thanks for the welcome!

DS is disorganised and also doesn't read a task properly or does the minimum he can get away with (he can't get away with it now!). He doesn't actively dodge homework, he could just do better!

Your DD sounds very academic QueenMabby I understand the frustration with different teachers marking work in different ways. My DH who has been a seconday teacher for nearly 20 years say that they just make up the grades at this stage and progress isn't a linear plot it's usually a scatter diagram!

Thanks @DataColour. She is pretty academic and usually gets top grades in pretty much everything (except sport. She's crap at sport! 🤣). This is the widest spread of grades she's ever had so it'll be interesting to see how she reacts to them.

@QueenMabby Our school used to grade 9-1 from yr9 onwards (I’ve two older ones). Some teachers used to give a grade as ‘if they sat the exam today’ whilst others would grade ‘what they think they’d get if continue as are’. So no standardisation and to be fair I think that’s pretty hard for a teacher to predict. Now my elder two have done GCSEs neither approach was very accurate. New head and all changed, so DD in yr9 has numbers 1-4 relating to organisation, homework, acting on feedback and another dimension, which I now can’t recall. I’m not sure how useful this is as I’ve not got my head around it yet. After 3 kids I’m no longer sure how reliable these reports are. Teachers must hate them but parents will always want them. Myself included. You can’t beat proper feedback as in Johnny needs to do x, y, z to improve but there’s too many kids to expect that from teachers every time.
I quite like our end of year reports that give each subject’s exam results as a percentage rather than a grade. It also states the median percent of the year group per subject. I find this quite useful as know from previous GCSE results where the median lies. It usually contains a written element per subject outlining what’s gone well and what hasn’t. But these are in July and last day of year so forgotten about by the time September rolls in.

The triple v double v combined science is an interesting one. Ours aren’t set for anything other than maths. So they can choose whichever. My other two DDs did triple as it was the norm and they didn’t need another slot. DD3 isn’t science orientated so I was thinking she’d prefer combined (all three sciences but less in depth giving 2 GCSEs) but school has switched to double science (two full in depth sciences rather than all 3), meaning she’d need to choose 2 and drop one. Nightmare decision as it changes daily to which of the three she detests the most 🙄She doesn’t really need the extra slot so she’s now thinking triple. And possibly fail all three It May well be worth you checking your schools if it’s combined or double. As I’d just assumed everywhere did combined if 2 GCSEs.

Our school do a target range from year 9. So that is the target grade to aim for. Year 10 and 11 they give a current attainment grade too, so that would be the grade if they sat a gcse now. For ds1 target grades were very accurate for gcse and A levels. Ds2 didn't take GCSEs due to covid. The target grades were near enough the grades he actually received. He kept saying in some subjects he'd have had better grades had he sat the exams. I didn't take much notice, we couldn't change the grades and they were good enough for him to take A levels. So we just moved on. Then target grades and final predicted grades for A level were ABB. but his actual grades after A levels were A*AA so the predictions were wrong and maybe Ds was correct in saying his predicted GCSEs were wrong. But there's no point dwelling on it. Though he may have aimed for a better university if he'd known that would be his grades. He's at Sussex uni where he needed ABC.

As for options. There's not much point thinking too much about subjects yet at our school. Because for ds1 and ds2 they had to choose one subject from each of 5 columns and most subjects they liked were in the same 2 columns. So they couldn't do them all. They had to do either history or geography. I remember them getting to the 5th column as there was nothing they wanted to do in that column. So I guess it'll be similar again. So we will just wait and see.

It is interesting how schools manage the options process. We're very lucky in that we just choose what we want and there are no limitations. Our only stipulations are:

Choose either all three separate sciences OR combine science (all three but only counts as 2 GCSEs)

One MFL.

Top set maths also do gcse further maths.

However, we do make choices at the end of year 8 too so dd has already dropped art, DT, food tech and computing so can't choose any of those for gcse.

@QueenMabby Sounds very similar to ds school, except no compulsory language. They aren’t being given GCSE target grades yet though, although that may come in the summer I don’t know.

@MissyB1 - no target grades here either - grades this time were just how they would expect a "xx" grade student to be working at this stage. I think. It wasn't very clear!

Are target grades same as predicted? We don’t have them so I’m a bit confused.
@QueenMabby is your DD at a selective indie? It seems that a lot of indies don’t have the columns for options.

Hello. I’ve just found this thread, may I join?

I have a dd in y9. I find it all doubly confusing as I went to school in Scotland and now live in England and it’s all very different!

dd seems to be getting on fine but options toward the end of this academic year and I’m not sure she has a clue. Some of the subjects she particularly enjoys are not her strongest subjects.

@QueenMabby interestingly it was always latin where my dd1 got the lowest predicted grades in lower years. The teacher taught all the language first before lit and culture and wouldn’t predict on the rest- it might be the same thing but it really stood out.

we’ve not had predicted grades for dd2 based on GCSEs yet but I’m ready for them not to make much sense until end of year 10.

no options columns at her school- a state comp- but it is very big which gives more options and they bent over backwards to give dd her very odd options choices (though one has to be after school). But lots near us are more rigid.

@NotDonna on our report it says target grade is the minimum grade they should get if they continue to work at the level they are now.

@MrsBungle I have always told my dc's to do the subjects you enjoy. Not the ones you are better at. Ds2 has just started university. He had considered doing business at uni. He finds it easy but boring He thought it would lead to a better job than if he studied history, which is his favourite subject. Anyway..,he is studying history, I'm sure it has to be better to enjoy what you are learning. I'm sure others would disagree though.

Welcome @MrsBungle! Options year is tricky generally I think.

I've just always encouraged mine to choose what they enjoy (like @icanbewhatiwant) but also to choose things that keep as many doors open to them as possible. I have a ds in lower sixth so have been through ootions/GCSEs once before. Not sure if it'll help me this time though - my dcs are very different beasts!

@NotDonna - yes, a selective indie although not all our state schools locally do "blocks" either.

@minisnowballs - I don't object to DD's 6 in Latin in principle it's just that it's not measurable against other subjects. Her lowest Latin assessment score this half term was over 95% but her teacher was open about a 6 being the highest grade she would give. She has other subjects with lower assessment scores where she's been given a grade 8 because the teachers for those subjects are approaching grading in a different way. It's just bizarre!

Hi, May I join please? My younger son is in Year 9 and I also have an older one in Year 10.

My older one has dropped his foreign language this year. I asked over the last 3 years if this could happen as he isn't very academic and I thought focusing more on maths and English would be of more help than doing a language he was probably never going to pass an exam in. I was told this wasn't an option but he came back on his first day in September and said a group of them have been removed from doing the language. I'm not sure what will happen with my younger one. He's slightly more 'able' than his brother but equally as lazy so would probably be happy if he does get to drop it!

We've had target grades since Year 7 (my 2 are both targeted as mainly 4s with the odd 5) but then on reports it gives marks 1-4 relating to attitude and effort so it's hard to know how they're actually doing. Mine usually get the mark that relates to 'doing what is required but no extra!'