6 year old friendship issues at school

[mumraaaa]

I'm a little worried about my daughter who is in Year 1 at school. She is a confident girl out of school, but seems to be finding it hard to make good friends at school. I think some of the problem has stemmed from her 'best friend' (who she has known since 6 months old) leaving her school last term. She put all her eggs into one basket with her and missed out on making new friendships in Reception and now friendship groups have formed which she can't seem to intercept.

There is one girl she plays with who is the oldest girl in the class and can be quite bossy and unkind to my daughter. I encourage her to play with other children but I think she fears rejection as they've told her 'no' before when she has asked to play with them.

She seems relatively happy, but it breaks my heart when she says she had to play on her own as no-one would play with her. This doesn't happen all the time, but it seem that if she's not on her own then she's with the bossy older girl!

Something else I find a little awkward is that i'm quite friendly with a group of the mums in her class and all their daughters are in tightly formed friendship group. They invite my daughter to birthday parties which is very kind, but it's quite obvious to me that their daughters aren't interested in my daughter and completely ignore her! They do the same at school! I feel like they only invite her because i'm friends with them.

Is it worth talking to her teacher or am I interfering in something which will blow over in time?

thank you

I would absolutely talk to the teacher. Ask him/her if they can encourage new friendships by making different pairings etc. The great thing about this age is they tend not to be embarrassed by their teacher helping them form friendships.
I'd also invite some of the others to the park for an outdoor playdate so they can get used to included your dd in the group.
Good luck

@Just2MoreSeasons

I would absolutely talk to the teacher. Ask him/her if they can encourage new friendships by making different pairings etc. The great thing about this age is they tend not to be embarrassed by their teacher helping them form friendships. I'd also invite some of the others to the park for an outdoor playdate so they can get used to included your dd in the group. Good luck

thank you for replying. Luckily her teacher is extremely approachable so i'll try an have a chat with her. Unfortuantely the pandemic really hasn't helped this situation either as it's not as easy to have a quick chat with the teacher anymore! Hopefully I can organise some playdates soon too. I feel sorry for the little ones, they've missed out on so much at school, especially the social side of things :(

Also second to speak to her teacher! She’ll be able to find her a buddy at break/playtimes. Many schools have a friendship bench system.

My DD is 10 and friendship issues seem less of an issue now then when she was 6.
Zoom/Facetimd has really helped her establish some different friendships over the pandemic. It does tend to be computer based - but I let her chat and play with a friend over my phone. In the same room as me, so I can monitor! I just message a class Mum and say is ‘x’ free for a FaceTime chat? DD loves it.