Moving to another area best around 7 or 11?

[Feellikerubbish]

I am thinking of moving and ideally would've liked to move before my eldest turned 7 and apply for new school and start at 7. Due to family circumstances, was unable to. Now not sure whether to wait until closer to 11 and move to start secondary school or move by about age 8.

What are peoples opinions or experiences? Is it better to move while kids are younger for ease of adjusting or better to move later?

Personally i have the opinion of moving while the kids are younger as i thought it would be easier to adjust than at the beginning of the teenage years, to move to a completely new area and leave all existing friends behind, might be harder to deal with as a teenager.

I would suggest that the move from primary to secondary school is a big adjustment and easier if you are doing it with friends or at least peers you are familiar with, so I'd move earlier rather than later.

Hi Feellikerubbish (and hope that isn't really true)

My advice is to really look into what the senior school options are in your area. You can always help and do more to support your child in primary, but it is rather difficult to do a full chemistry experiment on your kitchen table come secondary.

If you're in a situation where the entire class moves up to the secondary that's one thing, but our situation here (in Birmingham) is children are scattered to the four winds at secondary (grammar schools/ academies/ secondary comprehensives/ private schools etc...) so most friendship groups are severely reduced.

Our priority was academic standards (having had the primary experience of a fairly weak school & chaotic delivery of national curriculum, we didn't want to go there again for secondary). So we've chosen going for the 11+ (which was sadly unsuccessful, DD1 narrowly missed out on a place) and living in a catchment with a secondary comprehensive that gets fantastic results (and DD1 was offered a place in this school).

HTH

I should add that we didn't move terribly far from where we were and 2 of DD1s great friends will be going to her secondary with her next year. In total only about 4-5 kids from the class are going on to this school (very small catchment area).

I would agree with babybouncer - secondary school can be a huge adjustment, especially on top of a move away from local friends. They are usually much bigger schools and can be lonely places for a displaced teenager.
I found it much harder to meet other local mums from secondary school, compared to primary, as well.
So I would second starting them off in a new area at primary rather than secondary.

We moved areas when my DD was in year 5 and she adapted to the new school very well. She then transferred to secondary school a year and half later and found the transition very easy. She had already left one group of friends and just accepted that she would do this again. But she is a confident girl who makes friends very easily.