Moving schools

[Will83]

Hi we are looking at relocating and wanting advice/experience on how people think children in year 3 going to year 4 cope with a new area and a new school? They are doing extremely well at the moment and worry about moving schools x

We relocated when son was in Y2 - he was allocated the 6th closest primary school which TBH wasn't great. The teacher was nice as was his classmates. The school was in a rough area and had a very diverse demographic - which had its positives and negatives.
We were on the waiting list for 3 other schools for just over a year so he moved to another in Y3 - this was a lovely school where he made a lot great friends.
You need to proactive, get involved, play dates, say hello to the other parents etc.

I did worry about moving him twice but most DC are more resilient than you think and teachers are pretty good at integrating new pupils. I have zero regrets about relocating, I love where we live now.

Do you know which school your DC will go to?

Thank you for the reply. No we are just thinking about starting the process and looking at houses and schools! I’ve a few visits at schools but I know they may not have spaces (we have two younger ones too so they’ll need a space too!) x

I moved schools at the beginning of year 5 from the south east to the south west and there was significant difference in the level kids were attaining in key subjects (it felt like I had been moved back a year (maybe even two). You can imagine the impact on a kid that age, I went from loving school with loads of friends to hating school. That is the only thing I would advise, don't assume that the old and new schools are at the same level (it would have been worse for me if it had been the other way around for sure!) That said, my brother who was two years younger was not impacted by the move at all, settled in quickly and made lots of friends. (He was on junior school though, not middle school). I know lots of kids that moved schools and settled in just fine. It really does depend on the school and the kid! Best of luck, hope it all works out for you.

@Will83 you need to look at the school admissions criteria and priority order it's applied of the new area your moving to.

Due to the catchment usurping siblings rule in our area, I never got my 2DC in the same primary school. This actually had huge advantages as I got to know twice as many people, made lots more friends. It was a pain of course at drop off / pick up but we muddled through. Both were very good schools. We could have moved DC 1 to the DC2's school but by that time he was already half way through Y5 so there was no point.