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Original poster

Year 9. Ugh.

64 replies

OneOfTheGrundys · 05/02/2018 18:37

Please come and tell me your Year 9s are horrible too?

We started the year ok. Since Christmas however, they’ve turned into moody, attention sucking monsters who barely lift a pen.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better isn’t it. 😱

OP posts:
Original poster
OneOfTheGrundys · 06/02/2018 22:25

I know! It’s the pleading looks of the ones who are not in the deepest torments of the hormonal abyss that haunt me.

Goldrill. They will emerge. Eventually.

OP posts:
TealStar · 06/02/2018 22:33

I have a Y9 dd. It’s... challenging. Rambunctuous is a good word to sum her and her mates up. My apologies if she is in your class, op.

By the way, at my dd’s school they do their options in Y8 so are hitting the ground running in Y9. This has worked quite well despite my misgivings that they were too young to choose in Y8.

Taffeta · 06/02/2018 22:39

I’m loving this thread too having had the week from hell with Y9 DS

Options evening and parents evening upon us - yay Hmm

counttotenandbreathe · 06/02/2018 22:53

On one of my days i teach pretty much the same y9 kids for 5 of the 6 lessons!!! Timetabling genius at work there - thanks

saladdays66 · 06/02/2018 23:07

To defend year 9s, they have had teachers trying to persuade them to take their subject all year, plus lots of pressure about choosing gcse options...

My year 9 dd is lovely, of course Grin

monkeysox · 07/02/2018 06:35

I taught 5 of 8 y9 classes one year. Shock

mayathebee · 07/02/2018 07:11

I have one year 9 class I teach 3 days in a row then don't see again for a fortnight. They are always awful on day 1 and I spend all lesson reminding them how to behave. They are better on day 2 and we have a great lesson on day 3 then I don't see them for 2 weeks and they seem to forget all the rules in that time. So frustrating. My other year 9 classes can be pains but I see them more regularly and it seems more manageable.

snowbellj · 07/02/2018 08:57

I have a year 9 child and she is currently horrible. I thought we were sailing through the teenage stuff until we hit y9 😢. The school did warn us and said this is the hormonal year 😫.

I was talking to a teacher yesterday who was also saying that y9s are always a huge challenge.

Roll on y10 🙏

snowbellj · 07/02/2018 08:59

Sorry if that was quite blunt - she has been particularly rude this morning 😖 😢.
I do think this year has presented challenges with starting to want more independence, socialising with boys etc and her ideas are often clashing with ours.

PuffinDodger · 07/02/2018 11:06

Dd's form tutor has sensibly gone on maternity leave for their year 9. Back again for year 10

Ginorchoc · 07/02/2018 11:17

My year 9 is an angel Grin she is summer born though (girls only School) and turns 14 when the School finishes does that mean she’ll be a nightmare year 10 🤔

Got to second the poster who mentioned the teachers pressuring the GCSE option choices, we had parent evening last night and it was very hard sell and guilty feelings over not choosing their subjects. To the point it was uncomfortable with two teachers, are the teachers under pressure from above?

PuffinDodger · 07/02/2018 11:33

We've only made appointments with teachers whose subject dd wants to take so will hopefully avoid that. Hopefully none of the ones we are seeing will say "we don't want her to take our subject" ha ha

AppleKatie · 07/02/2018 11:35

To the point it was uncomfortable with two teachers, are the teachers under pressure from above?
Yes. At some schools teachers are told that not recruiting enough for 2 or 3 sets at gcse puts jobs at risk. 😒

DC also get such crap advice- often simultaneously about only taking ‘academic’ or ‘hard’ subjects.

It’s all bullshit. Children should take the subjects they enjoy and think they can do best in. Full stop.

Ginorchoc · 07/02/2018 15:02

That’s not good for anyone, very counter productive!

Original poster
OneOfTheGrundys · 07/02/2018 15:43

Core subject here. So I’ll be seeing all of them for the next couple of years!

OP posts:
Acopyofacopy · 07/02/2018 18:08

I was all set for joining in the moaning about horrible Year 9s, but today I realised that I’m actually quite fond of my lot. Mixed set with some real characters in there, but they can be so much fun on a good day! Maybe I have PMS?

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 07/02/2018 18:17

When I started at my school my sons were in year 9 there.I'd known lots of them right through primary, been to ours lots, my mates kids. I thought this will be a piece of piss.Well that was a steep learning curve! Categorised by silly boys and stroppy girls. Almost broke me.
Actually, the school now starts GCSES in year 9 and that awful situation of having to teach them when they have no interest in the subject has lessened. (Year 8 haven't got the mix of hormones that make 9s so....interesting)

BlessYourCottonSocks · 07/02/2018 19:59

I feel obliged to mutter it under my breath but I love Y9 just a little bit...

Always have done. And, yep, everyone else in our school loathes and detests them (and in every school I've ever taught in).

But I like the gobby sods. I bloody love the stuff I teach in Y9 - WW1, Life in the Trenches, Suffragettes, Holocaust and the Nazis - it's all the stuff that's fabulous and horrific and interesting and uplifting. I don't mean to be cheesy but there is something amazing about getting Y9 to THINK about what women went through to get the vote, and how shit life was for them. I love their indignant little faces when they realise women were considered lower than men. I love how shocked and upset they are about the Holocaust - and the really humbling stories that come out of it. And how much empathy and humanity Y9 can show for others.

I'm not over fond of Y8, however...

BiscayTrafalgarFitzroy · 07/02/2018 20:01

I actually love my current Yr 9s. Yr 7 on the other hand are feral.

TheSecondOfHerName · 08/02/2018 18:02

Not only do I work with Y9s (support staff working in health & welfare role), I'm also a parent to two of them, so it's pretty much constant.

I agree that it is not an easy year.

Oblomov18 · 08/02/2018 18:11

My Year 9 Ds1 is extremely unpleasant atm so you have my sympathy.
We've just had options evening and parents evening.
I do recognise that teaching ds for the remainder of this year, for subjects he intends to drop/ ie hates, will be really hard work!!

PostNotInHaste · 08/02/2018 18:43

You’re scaring me. I have a year 9 DS and he’s pretty civilised at the moment. He’s tall and started puberty early, is there hope that we’re through the worse he will remain civilised or am I deluding myself that it’s possible?!

TheSecondOfHerName · 08/02/2018 18:52

PostNotInHaste it's possible. I also have a Y11 DS that hasn't yet started being ridiculous or unpleasant. Perhaps he's a late developer.

PostNotInHaste · 08/02/2018 19:01

Let’s hope together then TheSecondOfHerName!

BettyBettyBetty · 08/02/2018 19:55

Blessyourcottonsocks you sound lovely- I wish I had your outlook! History is a great subject to teach.

Our y9s are absolute monsters. Sex obsessed monsters.