Parents who have moved children in year 5/4

[Crouchendmumoftwo]

Hello,
Are there any parents or teachers who have experience of moving a child in year 5.
We moved and I have to drive the kids to school which takes up a minimum 2/3 hours of the day, making work outside of home very difficult. A place in an outstanding school is coming up to be offered to my son who is in a lovely school with a close circle of friends. He will not want to move. This school is much more academic with great sports facilities etc and it will be the feeder school to his secondary school that we are most likely to send him to.
Will it set him back academically and emotionally, its a risk. It is much closer to home too which will mean I can get a job outside of home. Id love to hear good and bad from movers and any tips to make his life easier if we do decide to do this.

I've moved my very sensitive DD1 twice. My more confident DD2 once.

They were fine.

It's really not as traumatic as you might think and he can stay in touch with his old friends.

Our last move was from the UK to Australia as DD1 finished year 6 and DD2 was about to enter year 3.

All good.

Best thing we did was moving ds out of y5 to a new school.

I moved a Y5 DD to an independent school in Y5. She was keen to go, and she totally blossomed.

Moved my DD this year in Y5 to an independent school. She loved her old school and was very resistant to moving initially. Within less than 2 weeks she loved the new school and said (spontaneously) she really thought it was the right school for her.

Key part of getting her on board with the move was taking her for taster days at new school. That way they can see it as moving TO somewhere, rather than just movigng AWAY from somewhere.

Hopefully the new school might do this, and buddy him up with nice kids to show him around? Ask the new school what they could do to help him settle. (Private schools want your money, so are understandably keen to tempt kids in. But any decent school should make an effort to make new joiners comfortable.)

How certain is it that he would go to secondary with his new set of friends? A big factor in moving DD was that her new school has a senior school attached, so she can avoid having 2 big upheavals in a short time.

Moving kids in Y6 is not always advisable (according to a headteacher we spoke to when considering moving our other child). Sometimes works, but sometimes just disorientates them.

Moved ds in yr4 - to smaller school - best thing ever - he has grown academically, socially and now has friends he can relate to. New teacher really welcomed him - which fed through to the children - it was a bit tricky for a couple of weeks but he soon settled - he often says he is really happy he moved even though it was a very difficult and heart breaking the last week of old school days!
And if if feeds into the secondary school as well - it makes sense.