DD started primary school at a wonderful school (1), where she was very happy with a secure group of friends. She’s always been pretty bright, and hasn’t struggled academically.
We moved areas exactly two years ago, and moved her first to a school (2) where she was terrified and utterly miserable. After half a term, another place came up in a different school (3), so we moved her. She’s been at this school ever since and, although it’s been a bit better than school 2, she’s just not as happy as I think she deserves to be, certainly not as happy as at school 1. She’s made friends, but rarely has a play date; the other girls are a lot more ‘princessy’ (her word) than she is, and she is anxious a lot of the time. She gets very worried about teachers shouting, other children shouting, making mistakes, or not looking right. This doesn’t happen every day though, and some days she is happy to go to school, and always joins 2 or 3 friends in the playground every morning.
Her academic progress has slowed since leaving school 1, but this may have happened anyway as I think she was just a child for whom reading and writing ‘clicked’ early IYSWIM. Her current school doesn’t differentiate spellings or any other homework for her, and she seems to find it easy.
Her older sister is in Y6, and I am seriously considering moving her school when her older sister leaves to go to secondary. It is very unlikely that anyone from her school will go to the same secondary due to geography (we live a 20min walk from school 3).
When I ask her if she likes school, she says no. She cries at bedtime at least twice a week worrying about homework/something about school. She says that all the other girls at school are prettier than her. She used to LOVE school, and I find all this hard to hear.
On the other hand, she plays with friends at playtime and the teacher seems to like her. Other children say hello to her in the street, and she waves back happily.
Am I mad to consider another school move? A school with a much more relaxed ethos and creative curriculum has spaces and although is further away (15 min drive), has more children going to same secondary. It is much, much more like school 1 where she was so happy. I think she could thrive there- but I’ve made mistakes before, and am not sure what to do for the best.
WWYD?
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Move Y3 DD...again?
Toomuchsky · 09/02/2020 23:05
Thank you 
The school said that they would do a taster day once they’d offered the place, and that they would usually want the child to start the next day. I think this could be flexible though.
Typically, she’s had a good week this week- lots of art activity (it’s the one week a year they do any) has helped. I asked her how she felt about school this week and she said ‘okish’. I think that’s as good as it’s going to get at her current school. And I do want the next three years to be better than ‘okish’ on the best days.
Thank you Xela, that’s a really positive post- good to know that it might not be a terrible thing to move her
Seemingly out of nowhere, she said to me on the way home from school yesterday that if there was a nicer school, she’d like to move to it. That her school is ok, but she might want to go to a different one. Turns out another girl in her class has left to go to another school, and it must’ve got her thinking.
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