Year 8s driving me chuffing nuts - help

[Truckit]

Dear god.

Shouting out. Butting in with ‘hilarious’ jokes. Getting up and wandering (I was JUST getting a dictionary, oh my god don’t you want me to WORK.

I am exhausted and I have run out of ideas. Today was chaos. Called Home and set detentions and it’s made no difference. (One kid so disruptive in the detention that I ended up having to set another one!)

Help!

My year 8 are also hard work. The larger classes then in the past doesn't help especially as classroom designed for classes of 25 and I have 32. Have enough table and chairs but not enough space to separate them.

My dreadful Y7s are now my equally awful Y10s. They opted for my subject in Y9. I didn't have them in Y8 but they are well and truly back to make my life completely miserable.

I have a huge pile of Beanos and The Week Juniors for the reading resistant. Also old favourites like Roald Dahl. I distribute them before the kids arrive on the desks of kids I know won't have a book with them. It has honestly transformed my behaviour management.

I have a group of needy, whack-a-mole, hold my hand miss types at post 16 and it is draining. You have my sympathy.

I also have a round 5 kids in my class that really should have a 1:1 each but there is no extra support and it's all on me.

Add in the ones who don't want to be there, the ones who can't sit still and the ones who want to learn and it's a nightmare.

Your school policy isn't helping here. That sounds like it just defers the issue, rather than allowing the students who want to learn, to learn. I would bring in a three strikes = 15 minutes of silent working policy, where a peep out of anybody gets a detention. Strikes would be calling out, getting out of your seat, "bless you", "I was just..."

You have my complete sympathies OP. Year 8s are the actual WORST. The thread has made me realise I’m not alone in struggling with them though even as a relatively experienced teacher, so thank you for that!

My year 8 class this year are actually quite good, however, the year before lasts were absolutely awful - rude , lazy and unmotivated no matter what we did. They very nearly broke me!

Currently it's year 7 fussiness that's driving me mad! Ah well, almost half term!

Nope. There are no doors between brain and mouth. All thoughts flow from the brain directly to the mouth, without any attempt at filtering them for appropriateness.

Oh god you've just described my 6 year old to an absolute point!

I feel for you - when I worked in a secondary briefly the poor head of year for year 8 had a permanent pile of behaviour referral slips in one hand, cup of coffee in the other and an aura of despair and exasperation hovering around him.

I love it

If the school policy gives you nothing to work with then you will just have to be a renegade with your own harsh penalties.

@thisreallyisafarce has a great suggestion! I’d recommend your own four simple classroom rules. Display them on the board and have your own two strikes and it’s a DT system.

Mine when in this situation were;

• Listen respectfully when anyone else is speaking,
• Put your hand up and wait before speaking,
• Ask permission before leaving your seat,
• Remain on task.

Literally any misdemeanour can be shoehorned into one of these categories and then savagely enforced

One strike was a friendly reminder,
Two was a 30min after school DT,
Three was sent to isolation.

I'm also a HOD. What works for me is really making a fuss of the good ones. Taking a photo of their work and putting it on our twitter feed. Making positive phone calls home. Getting SLT to come in and see them being good. Telling them they are coping with some GCSE vocabulary really well. A girl who is a nightmare around school shushes the class now as I rang her mum and tweeted her work out, so she now wants to continue to work hard.

Matchsticks
I hate kids shushing the bloody class, don’t you find it just is an excuse to make more noise “ misssss i was just helping”

Cover here. Reading this thread has actually made me feel better. I can hardly believe how rude our Y8s are this year and I was beginning to wonder if I was doing something wrong all of a sudden.

I can’t believe you put up with this daily.

I also feel for the kids who want to learn and do well.

I think I would have some sweets to bribe them with.
Good kids get sweets.

Lauren0rder unfortunately giving students sweets means that they turn up to the next lesson on a bit of a sugar rush and is not fair to the next teacher.

Looks like their are carbon copies of my Year 8s around the country then!

'I was just...'
'It's not fizzy, it's isotonic'
'Every other teacher lets us'
'Why aren't you telling them'
'miss, Miss, MISS, MISS, MISS!!!!!'
'I was only asking'
'How long am I staying for'
'But I've done the work'

Roll on Friday 3.15...

Gah, there are...

I'm tired.

There’s a reason I quit working in school. 😨😨😨

Sweets mean

Rubbish on the floor (lolly sticks and wrappers)
Arguments over which sweets they want
Greedy fat kid grabbing a handful and then everyone calling greedy fat kid a fat cunt when he doesn’t hand them over
Sugar highs
Bad for teeth

Sweets are shit for naughty kids.

@Rosie it's not a regular occurrence. Mine were engaged but noisy today. One boy is really trying my patience. Works well sometimes other times not, but very indulged at home and talking to his parents achieves nothing.

You need a script.
“misss! Miss! He’s [insert claim about behaviour of other pupil]”
You [totally unruffled tone]: Maybe he was. Now sit down. Thank you.
“I was only trying to help!”
You [same tone] Maybe you were. Now get on with your work. Thank you.

“Maybe he was/you were” works because it acknowledges what they’re saying without giving it attention or escalating it. I’m also a big fan of using “we both know” to call them on their bullshit. “We both know this behaviour is inappropriate/not following classroom rules/not helpful.” It does work and avoids getting into an argument with them.

Oh, and if they’re doing that thing of going back to their seat s-l-o-w-l-y when you’ve told them, as a little way of being disruptive - don’t start with comments like “come on, hurry up! I told you to sit down!” That’s what they want. Instead, acknowledge the behaviour openly. Big smile, cheerful voice - “X, I can see you’re moving slowly but thank you for returning to your seat.” It diffuses it, and tbh they just look a bit stupid in front of their mates.