Move schools in year 5?

[ofstedconfused]

I am thinking that it may be time to move my Y5 DD from a struggling school.

However, she is happy (ish) and settled with friendships, but I do have very real concerns over her learning. There are very few exciting learning opportunities as everything seems geared around maths and literacy. There are no school clubs. I am concerned that she is losing her love for learning.

However, when I have mentioned moving to her, she is quite resistant. Is this one of those occasions when I just have to make a stand as a parent? If so, does anyone have any positive (or negative) stories that they can share with me?

I have just checked and there are spaces in a good school a drive away - there are spaces because the junior school has a higher intake number than the infants so there are often spaces but for legitimate reasons IYSWIM. There are no spaces nearer home, other than in struggling schools. However, the new school is in the catchment for our chosen secondary (will get place under sibling rule), so that is a definite advantage.

Hi. In my experience moving children in years 4 or 5, ready for your choice of high school, is easier for them than waiting until year 7. They have time to establish strong friendships with children that they will move up to high school with. Year 7 is daunting enough and brings its own challenges, without being the "new kid" as well. I haved moved two children in primary school and it was fine, they settled in very quickly and are very happy.

I moved my son at the beginning of year 4 and haven't looked back. He was at a small village school which, while it achieved reasonable results, I didn't feel was really pushing him to be as good as he could be. He's settled in brilliantly and made new friends and his attitude to school and learning has changed completely. He's gone from me having to bribe and cajole him to do his homework to begging to do it as soon as he gets home and has transformed from a surly pre-teen to a cheerful boy again.

It worked for me. I didn't actually ask him prior to moving as I didn't want to dangle something in his face that might not happen, and also because I felt, rightly or wrongly, that this was our decision to make and not his.

i moved ds in year 5 and it was brilliant, much better. although we had moved house. sp had to really. but imo it would be good for when going to senior school, with a group of friends already.

We moved DD2 in year 5. We were increasingly disatisfied with the little state primary she attended. DD1 had gone all the way through the school and then onto a selective private senior school but the school had a large change of staff and was about to embark on a huge building project with maximum disruption to the children. We were really unhappy with the head and DD2 who is very bright was not being challenged by her lovely but not brilliant class teacher. We moved her into the private junior school attached to DD1's senior school. I should have moved her the year before when DD1 left! Best thing we could have done, she is very settled in the new school and has made lots of friends who will go up to the senior school with her. She is happy and challenged and our only regret is that we did not do it sooner!

If and only if moving her gets her into a better secondary, do it now!

Y6s settle into friendship groups that support them into secondary if they carry on together.

If your just vaguely unhappy with the school I wouldn't, SATs make Y6 dull most places.

i dont think year 6 is so bad, they feel grown up and rule the school IME

The more I think about it, the more I'm realising that I'm more than 'vaguely unhappy' with the current school. DD has been unenthusiastic about learning for a while, I had just put it down to 'her age', but I think I'm starting to realise it's a lot more than that.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.

Will any of the children at your daughter's current school be going to the same secondary as her?
I tend to think if she is happy and is doing OK academically I would let her stay where she is.
My son's primary school had a bad OFSTED towards the end of his time in Year 4 and his year group had lots of problems, although he was doing fine. We moved house in the summer and seriously considered moving him to our local school but he didn't want to leave his friends. We agreed to see how things went and if we weren't happy we would move him later in the year. Due to many things, new head, reorganising of classes etc, things improved and we were happy for him to stay there, and he had a great time in year 6 there.
Only one other boy from his primary went to his secondary but it was not a problem for him at all.

Can I just point out that it's your home address that's used to determine the school you're in catchment for - so moving schools won't necessarily give you a greater chance of getting into the secondary school you want.

My dd2 moved at Christmas of y5. It was the best thing socially or academically we ever did for her. She's in y12 now and all her positive memories of primary school are from that final one. Loads of her new classmates went to her grammar school. Children can switch off so easily in y5/6.

Guaranteed place at secondary school under sibling rule - older dc already there. Catchment only relevant in terms of building friendships before secondary. Very few, if any, from current primary will attend chosen secondary, but majority from new primary will attend chosen school.