Go easy, I’m Post natal and a bit emotional about this one.
6 year old DS in yr 2. Always been very happy at school, we moved end of last year and he went to a school a bit further away whilst we waited for a space at the local school to come up. He was there from Sep - Dec and was very happy, progressing well, making friends, we liked the school. I think they challenged him and he was always coming out of school with stickers and was excited about the work.
Space came up in local school in Dec and because it’s closer, was supposed to be a good school in a nicer area, much smaller school, we have family there (and in the same class) so could share school runs etc. He seemed ok with moving and I thought he hadn’t really been at school 1 long enough to make real ties there.
3 months in and I feel like I’ve made a huge mistake. He’s really not settled at the new school, isn’t making friends, his behaviour isn’t great and he’s desperate to go back to school 1. I don’t particularly feel comfortable with school 2. Communication hasn’t been great, classrooms aren’t as nice, all after school activities are to be paid for per term which I wasn’t aware of (previously always gone to 2-3 per week and always been free, I had no idea any schools charged for them to be honest) and I just don’t feel that they are really doing very much to integrate him into the class or to challenge him. For example rather than having groups within the class that work at different levels, this school has them all doing the same then if they complete the work early they move on to extension questions which is just more of the same. He’s lost interest in it. Having family there hasn’t really done him any favours in making friends etc because they already have their groups.
Obviously I want to move him back to school 1 and sod the inconvenience but hes just had a new sibling so there’s been a lot of change and you can’t just move your kid every 5 mins because you’ve changed your mind. I’m worried I’d be doing more harm than good to his social skills.
We said we’d review it at Easter but that’s fast approaching and I need to be 100% certain of my decision because they’ll be no changes again if we move a final time. Is it really a no brainer or am I making another bad move by giving him more changes to deal with?