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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

anyone moved your child to a different school?

14 replies

belhamwalk · 26/04/2018 08:48

hi there, we have decided to move my DS to a different primary school. he is in reception. I'm wondering if its best to do it for the last term (he is currently in reception) or should we wait until September.
Also when do we tell him?
Has anyone had experience and how was it?
Our DS has made a couple of very strong friendships... and is going to protest at the thought of moving schools.
any thoughts welcome. xxx

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Celestia26 · 26/04/2018 08:53

I would move him sooner rather than later, I'm not sure that schools can hold places for a whole term either. Give him as much info and preparation for the new school as possible. Do you know anyone else who goes there that he could meet up with beforehand?

Celestia26 · 26/04/2018 08:53

My son was in a similar situation and dealt with it very well.

Original poster

belhamwalk · 26/04/2018 08:59

Celestia26 did he object to moving schools?
I'm assuming the place will be there, there are 3 places at the moment and if we move him in September he will be going into year 1.
xx

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Celestia26 · 26/04/2018 09:01

No he didn't. We made it as exciting for him as possible and prepared him as much as we could. The new school let him have a couple of visits while we were waiting for our house sale to go through, so by the time he did start, he couldn't wait. Maybe see if your school would accommodate a visit or 2 for settling him in? X

MollyHuaCha · 26/04/2018 09:09

We moved primary school with no regrets.

Pick your moment to tell your DS and immediately follow the news of the move with some great info about the new school - the chance to go swimming, the lunchtime Lego club or whatever.

Make sure DS knows he can still see friends from old school on play dates.

Hopefully all will go well.

chimpandzee · 26/04/2018 09:11

You need to ask the school if they will hold the place for him. Most where I am won't hold it if it becomes free mid-year. You may need to take up the place now or risk losing it, unless you have confirmed with them.

beautifulgirls · 26/04/2018 09:57

I'd move asap, he will settle sooner the sooner he goes and then hopefully when they move up to year one he will be very happy there already and able to focus a bit better as the work expected starts to put a little more pressure on them.

suitcaseofdreams · 26/04/2018 09:57

Do it ASAP. Gives him a chance to meet everyone and make friends before the long summer holidays.
I moved my twins 3 weeks before the end of the summer term in Yr 1 (from one form entry to two form so they could be in different classes) and it was def better to do it before the holidays.

Don’t tell him too far in advance as then he has time to worry about it, I told them a week before - they had an afternoon settling in session on the following Thursday and then started on the Monday after. Time to get uniform and familiarise themselves but not enough time to worry and stress too much.

Places can be taken up quickly so don’t assume there will be a place in Sept in Yr 1, if you know for sure you want to move him, just do it.

I won’t lie, it took a couple of terms for my two to settle completely but in part that was due to them coping with being split into different classes. They are both very happy now, with good friends and we still see friends from their old school so it’s worked out all round.

I worried and worried about it before the move and in hindsight I’d say just get on with it, emphasise the positives about new school (whether it’s bigger playground, better climbing frame, nicer lunches...whatever works for you) and do it sooner rather than later :-)

All the best with it!

Original poster

belhamwalk · 26/04/2018 12:06

suitcase of dreams, that is so interesting!! i also think its best not to tell him too far in advance.

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sallythesheep73 · 26/04/2018 12:26

We told our DS1 re taster day about 36 hours before. He really enjoyed it and wanted to move that week! :-) and he hasn't looked back. He is Yr3. He still sees some of his old chums via clubs etc.

GrimSqueaker · 26/04/2018 17:17

I did it but did so after the holidays - just because that was how timings had fallen with me getting so incredibly fucked off with what was going on at school (this was in Reception, going into Y1) and finding the space available.

I'd have done it before the holidays if I'd had the choice though - it did hang over my child a fair bit and played on their mind as a somewhat unknown quantity.

Worried about the friendships thing and unnecessary change but it was definitely the right choice to make with our set of circumstances.

stickystick · 29/04/2018 11:10

Am about to do this too. Probably to start in September - for one thing there'll be a lot of uniform to buy for the new school and I don't want him growing out of it all over the summer..
What I want to know is, when does one tell the current school? I've known people who don't tell the current school until the day before the new term starts (which I think is wrong). But I don't want to tell them too early and have the school and the other parents take it out on us with snarkiness ....

GrimSqueaker · 29/04/2018 12:05

I pretty much left it to the LEA system to tell the old school. I'd verbally told the class teacher, but, as with anything I'd said to the class teacher all year it was met with smiling and instantly being ignored. Think they were used to parents huffing and puffing saying they were moving out of the school but who didn't actually ever do anything about it so assumed I wouldn't... were well pissed off when one of the kids they'd identified as being a clear candidate for them getting a nice set of results with bog all effort from them actually left though!

I worried about what the other parents were going to say but actually I got a few "oooh how'd you get them in there then" slightly envious comments and then a couple who told me they respected me for at least making an effort to change the things I was pissed off with rather than just standing at the school gates and whinging like most of them did. It's a very odd situation with our old school though - I've never seen a place like it in terms of the sheer number of parents stood together all around the local area absolutely venting how pissed off and frustrated they are with the place (particularly the Head) every single day, but because of how the local area is - there's no real alternative for KS2 at least unless you do a fair bit of travelling - we're lucky in that we were right toward the outer edge of catchment so can travel to the next catchment area's schools relatively easily. No one seems to have a stronger word of praise for the school than "it's OK - it's a school."

I'd really suggest changing before the holidays even if you just buy a skeleton set of uniform and wash every night - mine doesn't cope well with uncertainty and change anyway though - but I think it really did play on her mind somewhat and I wish I could have got her in at least to visit properly before the end of the school year (my "final straw" catalyst to move them was fairly close to the end of term - and then things were complicated by my other child being hospitalised as well so everything went totally to shit in July for us!)

yikesanotherbooboo · 29/04/2018 12:56

We did it. DC weren't keen before hand but slotted in fine from DAy one at new School. We moved one then 6 months later the other.
Decide what's best for your DC and don't worry. They are not old enough to understand the issues and it is No one 's business but yours.

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