Moving year 9 daughter

[Trevlac]

My daughter is moving into year 9 secondary school. She is currently at a very big busy inner London comprehensive school. She is doing ok academically but not as well as she could. She is mixing with a group of students who are constantly in trouble and her behaviour fell off a cliff about 6 months ago both at home and at school. We agreed to look into her moving schools and she has a place for Sept at a local very small and nurturing private school. However her behaviour has improved quite a lot and she is now saying that she wants to stay at her original school. I have mixed feelings about moving her but on balance I am concerned that the day to day experience at her secondary school is quite traumatizing and that she is being very influenced (not bullied exactly but I think she is sometimes manipulated by her friends). Am I being unreasonable to insist that she moves?

Presumably you’ve committed to the first terms fees? If so I would say she needs to give it a go. She agreed to it did she? She probably has cold feet.

Not unreasonable, as her mother you see the whole picture and want to do the best for her future.

It is up to you. And it is a consequence of poor behaviour, and you making decisions based on your judgement. So she needs to go

I'd move her. We tried last September and she decided to stay and it was a disaster. Now going into y10 she is moving and I'm hopeful things will improve away from the bad influences. (I know they are everywhere but some them at the old school are off the scale

I'd move her now due to her age. If you give it another year she may be disadvantaged if the school has started GCSE's in year 9.

Do it. My eldest two went into private at 13 and it worked really well for us. Lots of kids go private or move on from their preps for year 9 so its a good time to move too.

I would move her and explain that although her behaviour has improved at home it might be difficult for her not to be swept up with the behaviour of her friends. What I will say is that from year 9 onwards at my children's school they had always had good discipline but once they hit GCSE years they were told that any sort of disruption in class would be dealt with very severely because it is affecting the learning of others.

To save her from herself, move her.

Move her, a fresh start from both the negative influences and a difficult reputation. You can review for year 12.

A year 9 can't make this decision and your a loving parent who can see the whole picture.
Be as kind but firm as you can be.