child's best friend leaving her school

[boxers]

My 4 year old only stopped crying going into reception class by holding the hand of a boy she knew. Apparently they are inseparable. Now he is transferring to another school. Can't face her going through all the tears again. Any advice please?

Have you spoken to the teacher? Could they not pair her up with someone else or try more subtle ways to encourage new friendships in anticipation of him leaving? I'm sure you have but just things like you talking about that's going to happen so she can start preparing for it herself. Very tough for you and her though.

It is not likely they make lifelong friends at 4 but you need to invite other children round to play, quickly. Most children have more than one friend at 4 and using this one for support is not a particularly good policy. Most schools encourage children to have many friends to avoid this sort of problem arising. Try and work with the school about how she can play with other children whilst at school and then she will gradually be weaned off this one little boy. She has also been at school for half a term so she may be more used to it than you think.

We had exactly the same thing happen in the nursery class when ds started school. Apparently when the girl's parents told them they were leaving one of the TA's immediately said 'oh dear, what's cat98's ds going to do?!'
It was fine. He was a bit bemused going in for a while but soon found his feet again. We prepared him and encourage him to play with other people, invited other families to the park after school and things.
Good luck, she's young enough that it should pass quite quickly. X

We went through this one ourselves. It took time and encouragement but ds managed to form new friendships and was happy again. We found the key was talking it through with him and preparing him for the change. Hope all goes smoothly for your dd.