What would help my daughter feel less lonely?

[AintNobodyHereButUsReindeer]

She's 8 next month and in yr3 at school. Her best friend left the school 2 days into yr3 and since then, DD has never really made another special friend. Her teacher has said she noticed this and that DD just seeks to drift around various different groups of children at playtimes.

Oh bless her op, this is one of my fears with dd

My daughter has always been shy and quiet. She finds talking to people 1:1 much easier than big groups (or she did until this year). Her strategy is to seek out the kids who are alone and ask if they want to play with her until their friends come. They’d often ask her to play when friends turned up, or if they didn’t turn up she had someone to spend 1:1 time with. The focus for dd was making sure other people weren’t lonely rather than the daunting prospect of making a friend. She had several groups she switched between from y3 on (moved school in y3), and in y7 she has 27 good friends (!) in about 5 groups (lunch, after school, travelling to and from school, lessons, others) and 6 “best friends”. When the task was “making friends” after the school move it was daunting, when the focus switched to realising other people were alone/ lonely it got much easier.

Definitely ask her who she would like to invite over to play. It’s much easier for shy children to make friendships one on one rather than in the noisy, busy environment of school. Don’t think about whether they are reciprocated or not, it doesn’t matter.

Drama or theatre school and persevere with it.

Stables local to me allow lessons every other week which keeps the costs low, could that be an option?

A pet, clubs out of school or maybe school clubs to strengthen the bonds she already has with her peers. I wouldn't worry about the parties so much. My eldest is ten and his teacher tells me he's popular within the class and I know he has mates, but I can't remember the last party either. I think the parties tend to for down around age 7.

I'd definitely get a kitten. My DD is so close to one of our two cats. She chose her from the litter and they are thick as thieves. I know the cat really helps her when she's having friendship issues at school.

I would really recommend brownies. If you let the people who run it know that she’s really nervous, They’ll probably be really good with her.
Getting the badges and trying out the new things will help her with her self esteem.
Obviously you can’t, and shouldn’t, force her but try to get her to give it a go.