YEAR 9


Year 9 has been as busy as ever since Christmas, packing in Charity Week, Exam Week, Year 9 Parents’ Evening and choosing their GCSE options ready for next year.


Charity Week saw them turning up in the ‘Wrong Trousers’ for a day, a really successful cake sale and a sponsored silence (not easy for some, I assure you). Our chosen charity this year is Cancer Research UK, voted for overwhelmingly by the students, who held some very mature discussions about how it seemed to touch so many of their lives.


It was a bumper turnout for Parents’ Evening and so nice to touch base with quite a few of personally. The conversations you have with teachers are absolutely crucial to your child’s development as a learner, especially at this time in their school career, when difficult choices have to be made. At the time of writing the options process is almost complete and the majority of students have their first choices. Of course, as was discussed during the information evening, it is not always possible to accommodate every variation of choice but we have worked with students to make sure that they will be studying subjects they are interested in pursuing and relevant to their future goals.


By the time you read this Pupil Progress Day 2 and Mark Book Update 2 will have happened but at the time of writing I am analysing results from our exam week, which was the first week of Term 4. These are tough weeks for the students but they really do prepare them well for Year 11 and what will be a predominantly exam focused curriculum. The exam weeks are now well embedded and students know what to expect. Revision is key, of course and students who were proactive in studying at home and getting advice from their teachers as how to do this best produced the best results.


where necessary in ensuring their child’s progress is not affected. We have a host of resources available to help us in this, not least our ‘Thrive’ school partnership with Wiltshire’s CAMHS service and our wonderful and hardworking Pastoral Manager, Mrs Thorne.


When students have been identified as being at risk of not achieving as well as they should be they have been allocated out of class extra intervention in English and maths. In addition I run a small intervention tutor group, every Friday, where I have direct discussions with students based upon them identifying issues themselves and acting upon them. MBU2 demonstrates that these interventions work and I look forward to working with different groupings of students throughout the year.


Homework is available for your viewing on our ClassCharts calendar on the website and students, even in Year 9 sometimes require your support and a nudge to get this done successfully. Learning to study independently is fundamental to their success as GCSE students. Simply, providing a few pens and a quiet space for an hour or two in the evening benefits students immensely and demonstrates to them that it is important. Please contact me if you require further guidance on supporting your child at home with this.


One thing Year 9 consistently excel in is their involvement in the school community. Be it striving for success in one of our sports clubs (of which there are a growing number), joining trips to Belgium or skiing, they’re certainly a pretty active bunch and contradict the popular image of the lazy teenager. So many of them were also involved in the recent school production of ‘Oliver’, both on and off stage and our Year 9 dancers were fantastic in the recent West Wilts Dance Festival.


Linked to results is, of course, attendance. We still enjoy recognising the majority of students whose attendance is excellent and enjoy celebrating this in tutor times, assemblies and Celebration Assemblies. Some students do struggle to maintain the standards of attendance that we expect and I am always available to support parents


www.matravers.wilts.sch.uk


Does your Year 8 child attend a club or activity outside of school? If so please email details so that they can be recognised for their achievements in the community in the next newsletter! nreeves@matravers.wilts.sch.uk


This willingness to work hard and to recognise school as not just a place you turn up to do five lessons and go home is what will carry them through in life towards their goals, the next one being GCSEs. How did that come around so quickly?


Mr Downes, Progress Leader Year 9


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