Me and my two DCs have recently emigrated to Spain and started school in September. They can both speak some Spanish but are not fluent.
My concern is with my DD who is 8. She is very sociable, though quite quiet and had two very good close friendhips at her lst school and was on friendly terms with everyone. It was a small and very caring school. Our new school is much bigger - they have as many students in a year group as the old one did in the whole school.
DD has been enthusiastic and very willing about the whole thing from day one despite some nerves and trouble working out the routines. At first she had a variety of children taking an interest in here.
My problem is that in the last few weeks, one girl has attached herself to my daughter and is actively stopping her from interacting with others. Dd says most people have given up trying to talk to her. DD isn't happy about this in part because she is a sociable and curious girl and in part because some of this girl's behaviour upsets her.
Firstly, there is the fact that she won't let DD talk to others. Secondly the girl garbs onto her a lot and drags her about. I though DD was exaggerating thisas she is very non-physical but saw it about 10 days ago and it was quite extreme. She was really holding her and pulling her a lot. I had to tell her to stop it three times before she did. I told the teacher about it and I know the teacher has reprimanded the girl once and spoken to her about her possessiveness over my daughter.
This girl can also be a bit spiteful, accusig my daughter of not being a good friend if dd does not do what she wants, or throwing her pencil case etc on the floor if DD disagrees with her. She also seems to cry a lot if things don't go her way.
DD is very worried about this girl becoming angry with her and being nasty to her if I say anything to her. She is also really frightened of not having any friends if she is not friends with this girl as all the others who showed an interest in her have been driven away. She does like this girl but is also really upset by her.
DD has been encouraged by me and other family members to have confidence to say no, and I do believe she has tried it bt she is getting increasingly more upset. It has come to the point where she is crying every day after school about it. This is not my DD.
I do support her but am not sure what else to do, and i am not sure what I can ask the teacher and / or school to do. But I do want to help DD because she loves school and I hate her being so upset by it.
She keeps trying to work out little strategies to pacify this girl and to make her nicer and less rough and it is so sad to see. What can I do to help her?