Son in Y12 wants to change schools - now

[Dairyqueen2]

Anyone had any experience of this?

Hardly any traffic on Further Education board ...

Son has been at a high-pressure grammar school since September - long journey to and from school and long days.

He's been anxious and demotivated since Christmas, and has just told us he's exhausted and unhappy and wants to change to a comprehensive nearer to home. We'd be fine with that ourselves, for the sake of his mental health, but ... is it possible at this stage of the year? He is a high-flyer so I don't think he'd have much problem with his subjects ... Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry. Loves his subjects and has a very clear idea of future uni path (hopefully)

Just call your education dept and ask if they have places .. you can just do this online in my county . It's easy to do if there are places .

First it’s finding a comp that does those subjects and has them timetabled to take them together (I’m guessing so as they are a common combination).

But mostly I’d want ds to be happy. He doesn’t sound like he is. If it’s too late to join, would it be possible to take this year off and join year 12 this September? He would be a year old, but that wouldn’t make much difference.

With the four subjects he is doing, at least there's a lot of overlap in subject matter between exam boards (it would be a lot more problematic with subjects like History or English Literature)

Have you asked the new school:

• Do they offer Further Maths?
• Are there spaces in all four subject classes?
• Have they covered roughly the same topics so far as he has covered at his current school?

The comp DOES do FM - he wouldn't contemplate it if it didn't. I think he's desperate to drop the long commute and the getting up at 6am. Yes, hoping it can all tally up. He's motivated to get into a good uni so hopefully could knuckle down, once the dust has settled, to do catch up. He told us that he thinks he could have coped with a high-pressure environment closer to home, but that the addition of the commute (about 1 hr 10 mins each way) it's all too much . Thanks for replies.

Is the commute messy? Lots of waits between buses? Or is it a solid hour on transport?

It’s quite a long way into Y12. The problem will be whether he can catch up if the topics covered are quite different.

The commute is a single, long bus journey.

I don't blame him, I got a bus for school and it was a good hour plus the car ride to the bus stop . Tedious ... I chose a secondary and house so my dd could walk .

He's Y12, so he should know his own mind and if you know he's bright and motivated, it's just the commute that's stressing him out, then I'd do whatever I could to get the ball rolling for him. Do it online if you can, or call first thing on Monday morning. He may be able to switch after half-term, if you're lucky and they have spaces.

There's been a lot of research done on teenage brains and they really don't function well first thing in the morning, so no wonder he's finding the constant early starts difficult. It's hard for anyone to get up in the dark and get moving, let alone a teenager.

I’d move him if he’s unhappy and you can get a space at a local/ good school.
I moved both my DC at secondary school even though we had planned properly to be in catchment for a very desirable secondary school, it just wasn’t right for them.
Never looked back, it was a good decision.

One of my children moved after the Easter holidays of year 12. She caught up on the topics that had been already covered at the new school that she hadn't covered as schools often teach things in different orders. It was the best thing for her and she did really well. I would say if he's sure and feels he would do better at the new school then he should move. Mental health is so important.

I cracked up slightly earlier than this when I was in lower sixth. If he's sure, then please do it. Specially as it sounds like he's bright enough to cope.