The Story of Tracy Beaker (series 3)

Tracy speaks to Ben, who is now at boarding school, on the phone about how she is practically in charge since Jenny left. When Elaine arrives, she becomes stressed when the young people are not ready for the arrival of the new head care worker. Shelley arrives early, stops the chaos and tells everyone to clean up. The young people eavesdrop when Tracy is allowed to remain in a staff meeting, but Tracy is angry and upset when Shelley believes Tracy should be moved to another care home due to the concern that she is too settled at The Dumping Ground. When Tracy goes to live with Cam, she is upset that Cam is going to New York on a writing course. The young people and staff decide to pack their bags and sit outside in protest of Shelley's decision over Tracy. Cam returns to The Dumping Ground and confronts Shelley about Tracy. Cam joins in the protest, risking her missing her flight and Shelley changes her mind on making Tracy leave.

Jackie arrives at The Dumping Ground and runs away immediately, but when she is brought in, Elaine asks Tracy to make sure Jackie does not leave in exchange for a giant chocolate bar. Jackie is introduced to the young people, adamant she is not going to be fostered and she fights with Michael when he takes her tin to look in. Jackie runs off again during Nathan's tour and at dinner, Crash almost loses his temper when Michael provokes him and Jackie berates the young people. During the night, Jackie prepares to run off, but is caught by Shelley and agrees not to run away, but when she distracts Shelley, she leaves. Jackie is brought back again and Tracy decides to help, letting Jackie organise a sports day for them, but Jackie runs off under the pretence of a cross country and Tracy finds her. Jackie confides in Tracy about her granddad, who is in a home, and shows her the medal in the tin and Tracy suggests she stays for a while. Tracy, Crash and Jackie are amused when Michael opens the tin, which is filled with worms.

Jackie decides that it's finally time to rescue Grandpa, and enlists Tracy's help. The girls sneak out of the DG, and successfully get Grandpa back to his old house. Finding his Alzheimer's is really bad Tracy has to make a tough decision. Meanwhile, Michael falls in love with Louise, giving the other kids a chance to get revenge on him for countless snitching and bullying.

Michael's big brother, James, arrives at the DG on the run from his care home, and he is discovered by Tracy and Jackie. But his brother's arrival brings out a new, sensitive side that no-one at the DG was prepared for. But will Tracy help him keep his brother a secret from the staff? Meanwhile, Cam announces she is writing a book based on the Dumping Ground, and everyone starts gathering stories for her. But she becomes increasingly exasperated by everyone's eager offers for help.

Dolly, Marco and Hayley form "The Beaker Club", pulling pranks on the staff and acting just like Tracy. But when the club dedicated to her nearly costs Dolly her ideal foster family, Tracy tries to put everything right again.

The DG residents are thrown into chaos when there's a sudden power cut. Tracy and the others aren't impressed at the prospect of an evening with no TV, music, computers or cooking, so Tracy decides to entertain everyone by telling ghost stories.

It's a busy day at the DG, as Elaine finds herself running the house single-handed. But Michael and Crash come to blows when she announces that a new kid Wilson is arriving, and one of them will have to share with him, so Bouncer starts a championship to see who will be sharing with Wilson. Tracy reckons it's about time Louise got her own back on her prankster boyfriend, Adam. All goes to plan until Tracy realises that she's got the wrong guy -Wilson, and with Elaine keeping a close eye on her, the house's biggest troublemaker, will Wilson cover for her?

Tracy develops a crush on Wilson, but is loath to admit it. however, it becomes clear to the whole DG when she accepts an invitation to visit Wilson's mother with him in hospital, and whilst out with Cam, she cannot stop talking about him. Is Tracy in love? Meanwhile, Duke gets a new phone, and Lol and Crash plot to cause mischief by sending Duke romantics texts from Shelley's phone, leaving Duke convinced Shelley is in love with him. Tracy then kisses Wilson and doesn't notice that Justine is watching.

Justine winds Tracy up after witnessing her kissing Wilson and Shelley breaks the news to Tracy that Wilson left in the night. Duke gets the young people to do some digging in the garden and Tracy cringes when Shelley attempts to talk to her about relationships. Michael digs up a box and runs off when everyone insists he shares what is inside. The young people open the box, which is a time capsule and contains clothing and photos, so Duke suggests they do one themselves. Shelley allows Justine and Jackie to make a film instead of Lol and Tracy refuses to join in. Michael takes some smelly cheese from Duke and over lunch, the young people row after disagreements over the time capsule, so Tracy takes charge and assigns everyone tasks. Tracy cheers Hayley up by looking for a photo of her mum and Michael plants the smelly cheese in the time capsule. When the young people are about to bury the capsule, Michael takes out the cheese and Tracy gets Wilson's phone number.

Tracy and Lol turn detective to try to get to the bottom of Bouncer's strange behaviour. Marco is also on a mission; to find out where babies come from.

Layla is determined to get enough cub scout badges to secure a place on the camping trip, and Tracy and Jackie are put in charge of supervising her, but quickly fall out when Tracy suggests that it's time for some Beaker-style assistance. Refusing to cheat, Jackie and Layla struggle on without Tracy, and Michael also plots to ruin her work.

Tracy's nose is put out of joint when she's forced to share her room with new arrival Sufia, who doesn't speak English. However, when Sufia finds herself on the receiving end of Michael's bullying, Tracy is forced to step in and come to her defence. Meanwhile, Bouncer, Lol and Jackie get carried away with a game of football, and end up breaking a picture in the lounge, which results in an art competition at the DG. When they three are forced to pay for it, they attempt to scam Nathan with a game of cards

Tracy goes through the motions with three sets of hopeless potential foster parents on a trip to the science museum, until she befriends Jake and Tom, a father and son. Meanwhile, Hayley is tired of being called quiet and plots to show everyone how loud and destructive she can be.

Tracy is determined to win Jake and Tom over. She realises that if she's going to impress them, then she needs to brush up on her skills at being around little brothers and dads. Meanwhile, Justine is tired of everyone talking about Steve and Carrie's baby, and tries to train to be a good big sister.

There's a BBQ party to celebrate Justine leaving. Jackie goes to collect Grandpa to join the party, and is devastated to discover that he is in a wheelchair. Marco dresses up as a magician for the party but can't seem to do anything magic, until he pinches Duke's flip-flops while he is asleep and sends them up high into the sky tied to helium balloons! Jackie is determined that her Grandpa will still be the fastest Grandpa in the land and soon gets him wheeling at top speed. As Justine heads off to begin her new life, Tracy has to face the fact that she's the last kid from the old Dumping Ground gang to be left behind.