Y9-2024/2025

[CouldNotStayAway]

Hi everyone, just starting a new thread for the new academic year.

Link to the previous thread here - Y8-2023/2024

Signing in
DD enjoying last day of holidays, while her Yr7 sister has her first day.
Checking the app to see if her timetable has been published... still waiting!

And happy as Yr9 means early lunch!

Hello and thank you, @CouldNotStayAway!

@PuttingDownRoots your post prompted me to look for DD's new timetable, and it has been published!

Almost all new (to DD) teachers this year, by the looks of it - and PE is conveniently on different days from her instrument lesson / orchestra, which helps slightly with the baggage/bus situation! (I really need to stop being so invested in the minutiae...)

Thanks for the new thread. No timetable has appeared here yet but it'll come.

My dd starts Thursday - Y9 is the first year they need to bring pe kit to change into rather than wear it. It's bound to get lost!

She is also stressing that she 'must' have a yellow jd bag to take it in because that's what everyone has.

Hi.
Irregular poster but find this thread quite comforting so rejoining for new year and will try and post more this year.
Dd is just waiting for final bits of her timetable - and has fingers crossed for her fave history teacher. Endless WhatsApp messages yesterday trying to figure out who was in what groups etc.
She's been moved down to set 2 for Maths, which is not a surprise, her teacher last year hated her 🤔 - hopefully being one of the best at slightly lower level will inspire her. Apparently they still do same exam papers.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky - she's right - yellow JD bags are PE bags of choice here too.

Much excitement here after first day. DD has always been a bit sad that all of her close friends where in the other half of the year... several of them have been moved across, so she has friends in lessons again. She's maintained top set for STEM in the reshuffle and a real shock of Set 2 for English etc... she was expecting 3 or even 4 (of 4)

And her whole tutor group has moved House bizarrely!

First day back, ds received his timetable Friday but was then sent a revised version Monday. He's happy with most of the teachers he has except one (allegedly a very strict teacher 🤷🏽‍♀️)

Can't believe 6 weeks have flown by...hope everyone's dc are doing well.

Dts go back tomorrow. They have no classes together this year which will be strange (but good) for them.

Awake at 4.30, up and dressed by 5.30. Think shes looking forward to going back!

Checking in, thanks for the new thread. DD was back today, and very glad to be back.

checking in! Hope everyone had an amazing summer
DD1 is back in school and happy so far - more subjects are set now so the disruptive kids thankfully arent with her quite so much

We have also had a ASD diagnosis for her over the summer so hoping with things in place we should have a easier ride hopefully

My dd had an amazing first full day. She has had a tricky time since last Xmas and I have had call after call home about her behaviour.

I had a call today saying how well she had done in one class. Focused, worked hard read her work aloud when asked.

It's good to see everyone getting on well so far!
That's wonderful news @Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky
It's always nice when they're happy with the new groups and classes.
DS is happy too so far, some of his chosen subjects like computer studies and French have about 10 pupils per class! I'm surprised French is the least chosen language (German and Latin seem to be the desired ones 🤷🏽‍♀️).
They have one enrichment class per week, and each term it is a different subject. This term it's Italian, which sounds like fun.

Weve had the first money request. £15.
Coach prices are extorinate these days!

My daughter went back last Thursday (5th). With all the problems she had at the end of last term with a really horrible group of so called friends, her head of year couldn't have been more supportive, and moved her classes and form.

She's settled so well into her new form, has a new group of friends and is so happy! Just hope it lasts. Its so nice to see her happy for a change!!

Hope everyone else's year 9 is getting on ok. x

Hopefully all the dc have settled in well.
Ds has been happy with the new teaching group, and happy with his choices.
Got a few things coming up in the next week or so, school cross country, geography field trip.
Hoping for a smooth sailing year 9!

How's it going for everyone? Kind of ok here but the new classes are a big change so taking a bit of getting used to. Especially days when it's very science & maths heavy! My DD is good at them but she's not very passionate about it so it's more of a slog than a subject she properly enjoys.

All happy here. School trip yesterday (a days hill walking) which they got lucky with the weather for and it seems they all enjoyed themselves despite dreading it! The school is delightfully bonkers at times... taking 200 13/14yos hill walking just for the fun of it....

We are having a good term. My DD has fallen out with her 'friend' (school described it as a toxic friendship) As the girl has also fallen out with the other one of the trio, the other one and my daughter are managing to stay firm against the nasty comments (before my daughter would give in and be friends again) . Its lead to a turn around in her behaviour - only 1 behaviour point in 2 weeks plus some achievement points and engaging in lessons.

She is much happier.

On the downside still no sign of an adhd referral and they also refused to complete the forms for a private mental health assessment I wanted to get done.

She has also started child development gcse (they do 3 year course) which she loves!

Good to hear things are going ok for the dcs.
We're doing well, except ds has managed to catch the usual coughing/generally feeling unwell bug.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky that's good to hear, and hopefully your dd is happier too now. Shame about the referral taking a while, and the issues with them and private assessment. I do hope you manage to get it sorted or the whole thing picks up speed.

How is everyone getting on in Y9? It’s mostly good for DD but there’s always something!

Friendships – things are good at the moment. DD feels her new teaching group like her, which is a massive relief as she has a bit of a toxic form group. She also does clubs four lunchtimes out of five (she only did two last year) and has formed friendships with her music buddies and her singing/dancing buddies, and she also has ‘before school’ buddies who are largely different again. So she has lots of options if there are any wobbles. This is a big relief as Y7 (with toxic form group) was a bit tricky.

Homework – this is just starting to get to her a bit. She is very diligent and wants to get her homework done sooner rather than later, but the downside is that she gets anxious if the homework list starts to build. Last night she had to catch up on maths classwork that she’d missed due to an instrumental lesson – this involved copying notes from a friend into her book and doing some questions that the teacher recommended. Then she had her actual maths homework which was unfortunately quite a lot of questions. She barely started that last night, so has maths and something else to face tonight for tomorrow, and went to school this morning feeling quite pressured and resentful.

I don’t think there’s a problem, as such – DD doesn't seem to be struggling with any actual content, and she is not worryingly perfectionist (eg when asked to make a ‘poster’ she doesn’t waste too much time on unnecessary colouring in!) but she absolutely would never consider leaving homework unfinished or handing it in late. I suspect this is a good thing in the long run, but we just need to watch for stress/burnout! I also don’t think the homework is too much – it’s just that she is quite busy with hobbies and music practice, and has an hour’s commute, so there are only so many hours in the day.

Sorry – that was a bit long! How is everyone else doing?

Pretty good here, although DD has a tendency to take on too much, clubs, productions, etc and get frazzled trying to work out how to make it all work, organisation is not her strong point, and neither is taking advice from her parents when we try to help 😆 1st abroad trip with the school coming up next week so all very exciting. We have an hours commute too @LetItGoToRuin and it does eat into the day, although some homework, learning scripts etc gets done on the bus.

Can I join. Have dd1 in year 9 she seems to have good and bad days. The school re-shuffled the forms at the beginning of the year, dd had stayed in the same form. But is finding the new members of her form have made the form very noisy/chaotic. She only has one or two lessons in forms each day though thankfully. She has asked about moving forms but I'm not certain school will think this is a valid reason. Dd and I discussed moving forms at the end of July as she didn't have a great time with some of her friend group but she declined.

Homework has increased quite notably this year. She does two sports outside of school that take up a good chunk of the weekend but is getting into the habit of doing something each night if not more.

@LetItGoToRuin your dd sounds a lot like my ds. work is generally increasing (and teachers constantly reminding them this is the time to start focussing in order for y10 and 11 to feel less pressured) there are evenings ds is spending quite a lot of time at his desk. However, he enjoys coding (and I have no idea anymore what is what 😂), so he spends quite a lot of time building websites or making games.

He's joined a few lunchtime and after school clubs too, and we are waiting to hear back whether he has been selected for the Duke of Edinburgh (they only have about 50 spaces).

@ElvenDreamer it's good to hear things have worked out with friendships/groups etc.

@DeathMetalMum ds used to find the teaching group a little difficult last year as it had a few of the louder/find it funny to disrupt classes. Thankfully they've reshuffled teaching groups and forms again this year, and he's much happier. Hope your dd is either moved, or hopefully the louder ones will calm down as the year goes on.