I’ve had moments like this pretty much every year that I’ve been teaching, especially with year 7. Schools can be very chaotic places for a small person and sometimes a kid who relies on routine just gets overwhelmed by a small change. Sometimes, also, a kid does their best to reassure all of the adults that it is just about the seating plan when it really isn’t about the seating plan at all, and when you get a round robin “please be aware that x is struggling because of [unexpected hideous circumstance]” email a couple of weeks later you think “aaah, so that’s what the tears were about, poor little sod”.
I feel really sorry for that cohort, tbh. We know that year 7s lack a bit of resilience and maturity at the moment because of their missed socialisation during the lockdowns, but it probably also doesn’t help that they’ve started secondary school at time when behaviour is worse than usual. I often think that some of the year 9 behaviour they see must be absolutely terrifying for them.
Thank you.
I agree, I don't want anyone to think I was blaming her for it. I was just so surprised!
I had built up this "Oh god, someone must have died!" thing in my head.
Oh god, no, they do it all of the time. You’ve been lucky to miss it thus far! I still vividly remember how one girl’s big, proper, rolling tears and their devestated little face really freaked me out the first time I saw it as a trainee. I thought something really, really bad must have happened, but it was just general overwhelm.
The other day one of my high profile year 8s was beating into some lockers upstairs (the lockers won that fight tbh) and I shut the door because it was CACOPHANOUS. One of the year 7s was like 'miss miss is he going to come down here and hurt us?' and she was genuinely terrified, with tears in her eyes.
Kids that age are so fragile - it's no bad thing, but it's easy for them to become overwhelmed and be unable to cope. I was a real crier at that age, although I never cried because of a seating plan!
Year 7 has always been fragile. They're still primary kids who just got leveled up against their will. They cry more than any other year. They're basically babies.
I call them "the little 'uns", because that's what they are. Like you say, they're babies.
However, you do get the occasional class who are way more sensible and mature than you'd expect them to be. My current 7s are a great bunch of kids.
I’ve not known a Y7 intake with the number of behaviour/resilience issues this year group have. In previous years, they’ve really started to grow up at this point. This year I still feel like a primary teacher.
My Year 7 class are superb. Sensible, well behaved, respectful, and some of them ability-wise are brilliant. Always a good lesson with them.
My Year 8s on the other hand...never mind feeling like a primary teacher, sometimes I feel like a nursery or playgroup assistant when teaching them!
I think there's a lot of this sort of thing at the moment. Things I've noticed that seem to be high right across all ages at the moment that I've observed:
- resilience is low.
- anxiety is high.
- being argumentative when they hear something they don't like, either that they have got something wrong in their work or in their behaviour.
- paranoia about being looked at in the wrong way.
- difficulty in being self directed.
I don't want to be that person that blames COVID for everything but... At all ages there is a lack of social and emotional development at the moment, and a push to return to normal seems to have forced us to move on (just at this year's year 11 cohort).
It's a puzzle I don't know the answer to really, I just know I'm dealing with a lot of ks4 issues that come across as year 7 / primary style issues.
Resilience is a problem across the board, yes. In my Year 10 class, there are a few who just can't do any work and basically sit around staring into space until I go over to them to explain to them what needs doing. One or two wait five minutes to ask me what they're doing.
I've had this quite a lot with a couple of my classes. I could give clear instructions not to call out or talk while I'm speaking, say that doing those things results in a warning, which would then result in a sanction if it's repeated. Then, when I give a warning, the knee jerk response is "what did I do?".
I'm still in training and find it hard not to get involved in arguing, because it's derailed lessons and I've come out of them feeling annoyed, but I'm getting better at just calmly stating that they weren't following instructions, and leaving it at that. The one which does still wind me up a bit is when they say they weren't doing something which they were clearly doing directly in front of me.
One of my year 10s cried because of the seating plan.
Nothing going on in the background.
I gave her three options and she denied all three because it made her feel "uncomfortable". The only comfortable option? Sitting next to her best friend, who derails the class.
Nope.
It was literally a straight up tantrum. Apparently it had worked in other classes....
I’ve had moments like this pretty much every year that I’ve been teaching, especially with year 7. Schools can be very chaotic places for a small person and sometimes a kid who relies on routine just gets overwhelmed by a small change. Sometimes, also, a kid does their best to reassure all of the adults that it is just about the seating plan when it really isn’t about the seating plan at all, and when you get a round robin “please be aware that x is struggling because of [unexpected hideous circumstance]” email a couple of weeks later you think “aaah, so that’s what the tears were about, poor little sod”. I feel really sorry for that cohort, tbh. We know that year 7s lack a bit of resilience and maturity at the moment because of their missed socialisation during the lockdowns, but it probably also doesn’t help that they’ve started secondary school at time when behaviour is worse than usual. I often think that some of the year 9 behaviour they see must be absolutely terrifying for them.
Thank you. I agree, I don't want anyone to think I was blaming her for it. I was just so surprised! I had built up this "Oh god, someone must have died!" thing in my head.
Oh god, no, they do it all of the time. You’ve been lucky to miss it thus far! I still vividly remember how one girl’s big, proper, rolling tears and their devestated little face really freaked me out the first time I saw it as a trainee. I thought something really, really bad must have happened, but it was just general overwhelm.
The other day one of my high profile year 8s was beating into some lockers upstairs (the lockers won that fight tbh) and I shut the door because it was CACOPHANOUS. One of the year 7s was like 'miss miss is he going to come down here and hurt us?' and she was genuinely terrified, with tears in her eyes.
Kids that age are so fragile - it's no bad thing, but it's easy for them to become overwhelmed and be unable to cope. I was a real crier at that age, although I never cried because of a seating plan!
Fair enough! I taught KS3 for years though, first time I have known them to be THIS fragile. Must be to do with lockdown.
Or you’ve just been lucky the other years and this year you have some outliers?
Year 7 has always been fragile. They're still primary kids who just got leveled up against their will. They cry more than any other year. They're basically babies.
I call them "the little 'uns", because that's what they are. Like you say, they're babies. However, you do get the occasional class who are way more sensible and mature than you'd expect them to be. My current 7s are a great bunch of kids.
I’ve not known a Y7 intake with the number of behaviour/resilience issues this year group have. In previous years, they’ve really started to grow up at this point. This year I still feel like a primary teacher.
My Year 7 class are superb. Sensible, well behaved, respectful, and some of them ability-wise are brilliant. Always a good lesson with them. My Year 8s on the other hand...never mind feeling like a primary teacher, sometimes I feel like a nursery or playgroup assistant when teaching them!
I think there's a lot of this sort of thing at the moment. Things I've noticed that seem to be high right across all ages at the moment that I've observed: - resilience is low. - anxiety is high. - being argumentative when they hear something they don't like, either that they have got something wrong in their work or in their behaviour. - paranoia about being looked at in the wrong way. - difficulty in being self directed. I don't want to be that person that blames COVID for everything but... At all ages there is a lack of social and emotional development at the moment, and a push to return to normal seems to have forced us to move on (just at this year's year 11 cohort). It's a puzzle I don't know the answer to really, I just know I'm dealing with a lot of ks4 issues that come across as year 7 / primary style issues.
Resilience is a problem across the board, yes. In my Year 10 class, there are a few who just can't do any work and basically sit around staring into space until I go over to them to explain to them what needs doing. One or two wait five minutes to ask me what they're doing.
I've had this quite a lot with a couple of my classes. I could give clear instructions not to call out or talk while I'm speaking, say that doing those things results in a warning, which would then result in a sanction if it's repeated. Then, when I give a warning, the knee jerk response is "what did I do?". I'm still in training and find it hard not to get involved in arguing, because it's derailed lessons and I've come out of them feeling annoyed, but I'm getting better at just calmly stating that they weren't following instructions, and leaving it at that. The one which does still wind me up a bit is when they say they weren't doing something which they were clearly doing directly in front of me.
One of my year 10s cried because of the seating plan. Nothing going on in the background. I gave her three options and she denied all three because it made her feel "uncomfortable". The only comfortable option? Sitting next to her best friend, who derails the class. Nope. It was literally a straight up tantrum. Apparently it had worked in other classes....