DS won't know anyone when he starts reception - will he be ok?

[paddyclamp]

The background is we sent our DS to nursery 20 miles away from where we live cos it was near to where me and DH both work (and it is an excellent nursery).

In Sept he will start at our local primary near our house. He has made a nice group of friends at nursery but unfortunately we don't know any of the kids his age round here.

I do have some good mummy friends round here but i made all of them with my 2nd child so their kids are all around her age.

Really worried that i made a mistake sending him to nursery so far away and that he'll hate school and miss his old friends

Anyone have any experience of this sort of thing?

yup, my ds only met 2 other reception-starters & his teacher to be briefly b4 he started reception (one of these kids not even in his class).
He was fine, but that was my ds, he loves novelty/new situations.
Would have been a disaster if dd had known no one b4 starting school. She was a more insecure person.

Downside for ds or maybe plus side in some eyes was few invites to birtday parties b4 Yr1.

I will be in the same situation in september, only the other way round. We sent ds to a nursery close to are house only in september he starts school in a different area. He will have dd 2 years above him but iam worried, like your ds he will not know any of the other children and alot of them will have been to nursery together.

My dd didn't know anyone else starting school - and lots of children in her class had older siblings at the school and so already knew each other. It didn't stop her making friends quickly at all - in fact, I think it helped because I was more conscious of it and so was pro-active about asking other children around for tea, etc. - whereas with her younger brother I was more complacent/lazy and he still hasn't really made any new close friends...

yes she'll be fine - they all play in a group at that age anyway.

my DD didn't know anyone in her reception class. No problems at all.
they make friends in about three minutes at that age.

None of the girls in DD's class knew each other before they started school. The school didn't have a preschool attached.

We did meet up briefly with 3 girls before they started - another mum initiated it and phoned us up to meet at a local pub with outdoor play area for an afternoon.

DD was perfectly fine when she started school. No problems at all, she loved it from day one and made friends the first day.

In same situation. Great nursery that is conveneintly near DH's work, where my ds goes. But he will start at the local school in Sept. I did meet people in baby groups, from the area i live in, but lost touch when i went back to work.

I am a bit worried that ds will not know anyone at the school. We are going to a parents evening next week, and I know that the school organises two "settling in visits" where we will go with ds and visit the school, and meet other parents. I think this is the norm now.

I'm hoping that I see people from the baby groups me and ds used to frequent at these "settling in visits", and can regain friendly contact.

I will keep in touch with friends he and i have met through nursery. And he has friends through my old school friends, who have had kids too etc. I am hopeful that the transistion wont be traumatic!

Ds2 did know a couple of children in his class when he started in primary school but didn't hang around with them at all! He made friends with the little boys sitting next to him and is still bestest buddies with him 5 years on!

Thanx for the replies..

i think sometimes i'm looking at the situation through an adults eyes. I'm not a shy person but it's horrible having to break into a group where everyone knows everyone.

The school he's going to doesn't have a preschool attatched which i guess means it's less likely that all the other kids know each other.

At the nursery he's at it's not as though they all go to one primary anyway and most of his close friends will be split up cos they are all going to different schools.

Our school has settling in sessions too so should get more idea then i guess of what everyone's like.

I just hope the other mums are nice - you hear some horrible stories don't you?!

Ds1 didn't know anyone - lots of the childre there did because they went to the school nursery. Ds1 was fine though - maybe a bit unsettled for the first half term but perfectly fine after that.