Y7 form change ?

Sorry OP I see you said she's in clubs - are they school clubs? Is it an all girls school? I assume selective if they then aren't streamed for subjects (a lot of grammars are like that)

Are their clubs she can join? Our school is very big on having tons lunch clubs / afterschool stuff which helps kids find their tribe as well as them being mixed up for classes and streamed for some. It must be tough for her. As our forms don't do all lessons together, only 3, the numbers thing doesn't really matter. State comp.

to this day i recall the girls in my year who never really made friends. They sort of floated around. It must have been tough for them not to have their tribe at school but thinking back to some of them, i wonder if they ever found a “tribe”

And presumably in a term or two all subjects will be set so she’ll be with a whole new group of people?

at break time she presumably spends with her friends from the other class?

unless there’s actually a space, then the conversation isn’t worth having because they are not going to swap your daughter with another in the other form

it’s one term in
your daughter hasn’t found her friends yet.
just give it time, encourage her every morning and when she does make a connection, encourage her and make it clear to your daughter than you have an open house to when she wants any friends over

i would be very surprised if the school move a girl who has struggled to make friends in to another form. Potentially disrupting that form. And… meaning one form has more pupils than the other

are there even spaces?

• *she seems to have dealt with unkind incidents ok, I think it’s more demoralising because she hasn’t any friends to share the experience with, laugh it off or to empathise with her. She’s feeling lonely.*

from the school’s perspective…, a few unkind comments is not enough to get warrant much more than what has been suggested.

As you say, it just seems like your daughter has not made friends in her form and it’s unlikely they’d move her for that. Otherwise they will be moving people back and forth very regularly with the ebb and flow of friendships, especially girls!

what did the head say when you raised moving forms? did she give a time by which of her suggestions have not improved situation - then it would be a possibility?

are you happy with the school generally?

a large secondary school with no teacher responsible for pastoral care? very unusual. Concerning actually.

Our school would switch her form after a term. Thankfully ours are mixed across lessons etc too

and that remains the same next year and year 10?

have you requested a meeting with head of year to discuss?

are you sure that there’s not a single point of contact at the school with pastoral care responsibility?

My DC's school did this as well (they only had sets for maths). It's actually intended to make the move to secondary school easier as they are not overwhelmed by lots of new people and it keeps them in a situation they are used to from primary school (staying in the same class group for most things).

That said, I think they did mix classes for PE as it was split into boys/girls and possibly DT as the class sizes needed were different, so that might be the case for OP also?

so they don’t stream for any class whatsoever?

Yes at dds school they are keen on setting set early and the sets are fluid the girls are frequently moving up and down. Not only is this better academically but exposes them to different girls (who are more likely to be at their level of academics). As they don’t do that at your school I would definitely advocate to move.

Normally I'd say leave it until the end of year 7. It can often take 3 terms to find their feet and settle in. However, always being in that form group for all lessons does seem to be extremely limiting in terms of meeting new people. I'm really surprised at that. That must be so stifling if there's no one you particularly get on with. At my DD's school classes are formed from 4 form groups so there's a lot of mixing throughout every class and every school year.

I think it would be worth seeing if a move is possible before getting too far into this second term.

If there's no mixing of classes the school should really have tried to make sure everyone had someone they could name as a friend in their class. My daughter got to name some children she would like to be with and the school tried to make sure everyone has a named friend in their form group when they started.

I'd most definitely be speaking to head of year to get a move on grounds that it is affecting her mental health and you don't want to be in the position that she starts to school refuse. Not saying that's on the cards but it may focus the minds of the school to be proactive rather than reactive when the problem is more difficult to solve.

I think you need to be firm in your convictions that a move is in her best interest and therefore the schools.

Actually just the other day dd mentioned a girl she has met recently in one of her classes who she really likes but the girl is unhappy as not in an group and her parents have been into school about it etc. Dd is going to invite her into town and to a party this weekend. That’s all it takes…