DD12 and mean girls

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Oh my god. What is going on with young girls nowadays? Or has it always been like this. DD is a part of a group of 4 friends in final year of primary school. Definitely a hierarchy in group with two being the heads. Recently these two have made friends with another group of girls from another school. My DD has been told that she can't join this new group but they will all still be friends in school. WTAF. Who does that??
So she's good enough for school but not outside. They are all planning on being friends in local secondary school so already my DD is panicking that she will have zero friends in the new school and they will all be a big popular group. I feel so bad for DD. Has anyone had experience of this?? How can I help my DD. Its really getting her down

It’s awful. I would encourage your dd to start mixing with the other children in her class (although I know it’s really late in the year to be doing that)

I would also teach her about what is a good friend so she can quickly work out what is a good friend and what isn’t.

These aren’t good friends and she needs to make news ones so I would be really encouraging that.

Try to explain to her that when she goes to secondary school it's a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. It's also a chance to distance herself from this group as they obviously aren't good friends to her. It will probably become more clear to her once she's at secondary school.

Honestly secondary school is such a game changer for friendships that she shouldn't worry. My DD very quickly made completely new friends and only mixes with her old primary school bunch when they're all in a big group. While they might think that those primary school friendships will persist, they very often don't. If anything your DD will be at an advantage now, being open to making new friends when she gets there instead of feeling loyalty to a group which most likely will fade away after a few weeks anyway.

There are some really good books on Amazon about friendships for this age groups.
Girls are a bit of a nightmare.