Year 7 daughter struggling to find new friends outside primary group

[Jinglejinglejingle7]

My dd12 Year 7, is struggling with friends. Shes with a small group from primary and the secondary have done a great job keeping them together but unfortunately she wants to make new friends, more into the same things as her. There's a bit of very low level history of being left out, unkind things said etc. But ultimately I think the group are all into very different things and 2 girls imparticular are similar so are closer. Shes miserable at the moment as she feels she cant make new friends as everyone is already in groups. She does outside activities but so does 1 of the other girls she wishes to move away from. Anyone had similar issues? Shes in a tutor group with 1 girl so will go through school with her as these dont change. Im hoping the classes for Year 8 might shake thimgs up a bit! Any advice?

I would get her to focus on being friends with everyone (or most people) rather than having a group. Intense girl gangs are just that - intense, and rarely helpful.
Friendship dynamics will change over the next few years. She will be put into sets/GCSE option groups/forms and things will move on. Have her continue with her activities and most of all, tell her not to stress about it.

My DD went to secondary with a solid group of friends from primary, but the school didn't keep them together, and my DD was in a form on her own and found it very hard to make friends. She also had had no practice at being an individual making new friends since she was 4! Year 7 was hard for her and year 8 only a bit better when lessons were setted and she was back with her primary friends for about half the school day.

My advice would be to challenge your DDs thinking. She has some fixed ideas, like most teenagers who know everything, and you sound like you're buying into them a bit too. Everything has the potential to flex. Friendship groups are very fluid for teen girls, there may be a few solid groups that don't break up over the 5 years of secondary school, but even those might be very happy to widen their group if they click with your DD. Help her feel that it's ok to join an existing group at lunch and see if she fits in. Her self confidence needs building up and her ability to approach people. See if she'll join some different groups/clubs inside or outside of school. For my DD, doing the school play opened doors with new people and gave her a confidence boost. Creative/performing based groups are great for meeting outward looking people and becoming more confident yourself... Drama, music, dancing, band, debating etc. If there's not an existing club that she's interested in, she could speak to the pastoral lead about starting one. If she'd very much like to be in a different form, the pastoral lead might be able to help with that too. Lots of kids do move forms because of social reasons through the years.