Welcome to Year 9
The Pastoral Year Leads for Year 9 are Miss A Gordon and Mr Ali Bhatti
Year 9 is one of the most important years in education as students begin to prepare for their futures. It marks the coming to an end of Key Stage 3 and the preparations begin for Key Stage 4. It is an exciting opportunity to think very carefully about future aspirations and learning pathways beyond Derby Cathedral School and how students can build upon their strengths to achieve these goals.
During Year 9 students will be expected to take more responsibility of their learning, continue to build on their prior knowledge and reflect on their skills and achievements to ensure they are preparing themselves for their upcoming option choices for GCSE.
Throughout Year 9 students will have the support of our careers advisor, Miss Rowley, and our knowledgeable staff to ensure that they make the best choices to successfully move into Year 10 and begin their GCSEs.
Year 9 begin and end each day with tutor time where each day different activities take place. For Year 9, as we progress through the year, those activities will turn more towards options, GCSEs, Study Skills and revision strategies to allow students to already have key knowledge as they transition into KS4.
At Derby Cathedral School we expect all students to follow our FAITH values, and for Year 9 these values should already be well embedded. Of course, these values are important for every year group, but for Year 9s, we really target these towards success in KS4, as without these, that success will be impossible to achieve.
Year 9 will also be offered to participate in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. This is an internationally recognised award and, not only is it a fantastic opportunity for the students to show all the Faith values and to improve and develop a wide range of personal skills, but will also help to give our students a great advantage when applying for college and apprenticeship positions when they leave us.
Our aim is to make everyone’s time at Derby Cathedral School an enjoyable learning experience. We strive to provide students with the support they need to flourish in their time at secondary school.