Explaining to DS he'll be going to a new school.

[schooldilemma81]

After a very helpful MN thread we have decided to send our DS to a different school than the school he currently attends the nursery of.

He'll start FT in Sept.

How do we go about explaining this to him to cause the least possible upset?

Do we do it now or do we leave it until weeks before?

We are going to try and get a few transition visits sorted.

It's all very scary for all of us. We just want him to be okay.

On the plus side the school he'll be starting at in Sept has no attached nursery, so it will be a mix of children.

I would be extremely surprised if the new school didn't run a series of transition sessions, so your won't need to do that yourself.

I would start mentioning it now in a low key way eg. 'After the summer all the big children at your nursery will be leaving and going off to school. Lots of them will be going to xx school which has a red uniform, but you're going to go to Yy school which has a blue uniform.'

Then, I would gradually talk about all the things that are the same as his current nursery e.g. Sandpit, Lego, outside space etc.

We were in a similar situation, but had to do it on April 16th for various reasons. If we had a choice, we would have timed it later because the most confusing part for DD has been that it's five months away and not next week.

Otherwise, it's gone fine. We walked by her new school a couple of times and talked about what a nice school it is and what colour uniforms they wear. Then when it came time to tell her, we did exactly as Littlefish says. I also gave her the prospectus so she could flip through the pictures. And we walked by the school again a couple of days later. We also told the nursery so that they could start to talk to her and her friends about it. She is really excited about the idea of it anyway. Now we have just dropped the topic altogether and only talk about it when she brings it up, which is almost every day.

Good luck!

Do you mean your DD has already moved?

Ahh just saw the rest of your message!

So your DD will be starting at the school in Sept and you've already told her?

Yes. She starts in September and we already told her. We had to tell her because for us the topic of which school was going to come up with some of her peers outside of her nursery so I didn't want her to mistakenly assume she was staying in her current school. Her new school has a few settling in sessions and one of the reception teachers will visit her current nursery in situ.

I think we will wait until we get the def nod - it's a late application but they do gave space. I've mentioned the school a couple of times - they have a blog so have been showing him the fun things they get up to!

Have also told him that the uniform will have a local landmark on.

Are you nervous about it?

*have

Also have you made mum friends at the nursery?! That's going to be hard for me too.

Telling them. And the nursery - almost like I'm rejecting them! What's worse is it's just been downgraded Ofsted-wise so they'll clearly think it's that but it's not. We're moving and I want him to be where he's going to be if that makes sense. If we were staying here he'd stay here.

We were in the same position with DS1 - except the school we were leaving was the local go-to school.

It won't be as big a deal for your DC as it is for you. Littlefish is right. Look out for other parents at welcome evenings, that's almost more important than any of the information given to you by the school, and try to get one or two play dates in before September. If you can catch up with your new best friends on the first day of school and all walk in together that will help too - we did this by accident but it was a happy one.