Moved DD from private to state primary for Y1 after sports day debacle - starts tomorrow aaagh

[Spatz]

After her reception sports day - lots of children in tears especially after nasty prize-giving I decided to take a place at another, closer school. She starts in Y1 tomorrow - hope we made the right decision! I'm concerned that she doesn't know the way things work although she knows some of the children from nursery. I guess the state system will be quite similar - the complaints I've heard from other parents re lack of communictation also apply to the school we left!

I'm sure she'll be fine. She's young enough to cope with all kinds of changes.

Thanks Xenia - she finds separation hard. She's already moved her bed into our room tonight because she's too scared to sleep alone. I hope the teacher will let her keep a 'friend' (soft toy) with her for the day.

oh, spatz...well done and huge respect to you for moving your dd, it seems like such a huge decision but it certainly sounds like you did the right thing; my god, a school bringing recption kids to tears at sports day?

Fwiw, I'm sure you did the right thing and I'm sure your dd will be fine. My best friend at school came in in year one and she was very popular and did well; as Xenia said kids are able to adapt.

Just be positive that you did the right thing, and dd will sense that you're ok with it, which should remove some of her anxiety.

What a crap place that school sounds, I still can't believe it!

At dd's (state) school, they had 2 new starters in year R & another new starter yesterday (1st day in year 1). The teachers are great at making extra effort to include the new child, sorting out playground "buddies", encouraging the other children to be really welcoming & friendly etc. I help out in the classroom occasionally, so got to see it first hand & was really re-assured that if we have to change schools dd would not be left floundering about on her own

Hope your dd's 1st day is a good one.... sure she'll be absolutely fine

Thank you so much SSU and saltcod (any relation to cod herself?) it really cheered me up seeing these this morning. It is hard to know if you've made the right decision on these things.

The teacher this morning seemed very nice, but DD did cry when I left. Another parent went to peep at her for me a few minutes later and she had stopped, which is good, but the real test is whether she cried later. In reception she cried during the day for some weeks! I'm hoping this school will suit her better and generally be kinder to the children.

We moved our 8yr old twins in year 4 from private to state school as one in particular was not coping . It was definately the best move for them and they havnt looked back - but it is a big step and can sympathise with you.I dont have anything against private schools as our eldest is still there and doing well - it just doesnt suit everyone.

I've just moved my daughter from a private pre-prep to year 3 at a state middle school - she seems to really like the new school (she also liked her old one) and to have settled in quickly (after all, she's only been there 3 days) but I have to be honest - I'm still concerned that they will give her challenging enough work and allow her to work at her own pace, and I'm wondering if we made the right decision. According to her previous teachers, she's a "strong average" - and able to cope with whatever's thrown at her. We're in a leafy suburban area with good state primary schools - secondary schools aren't as good. I just thought that maybe we were wasting our money when we should be saving it so we have the choice to send her private at secondary - there are some things I've been impressed with at this new school - they assessed her reading on the first day and gave them an (easy - so she said) spelling test; she's also monitor for the register for a couple of weeks! ahh. I guess time will tell ... She's happy to go into school - it has a good reputation in the local area - and doesnt rush over to me at hometime - as you can see, I'm still not sure though

96% of children in England go to state schools. Too many parents struggle too much paying fees and worry about it too much. You just have to make the best decision for the child. I have always paid and it's worked out fine for us but there are good and bad state and private schools. You can't generalise too much.

Twins is interesting below. Would anyone split twins? My sister's got into different schools and she didn't split them - gave up the good place for one so they could be together. I wouldn't rule out splitting mine at 13+ but not sure yet.

I've wondered about twin splitting Xenia. Mine are only tiny (5), in Year 1 but already one seems to find it all a lot easier than the other and definitely seems to be more academic. I just don't think I could turn down a place at the local grammer school just so she could stay with her sister at the local comp. A long way off in my case I know, but it's still a thought. They are in different classes now so maybe it wouldn't be too bad to be in different schools.

yes I know triplets who got into the local high performing girls comp school on appeal - I dont know what would have happened if all of them hadnt got in ...