Confused about changing schools in reception

[Awwsome]

My Dd started reception in September.

This was my 2nd choice school although i loved it. She was on the waiting list on my first choice of school which has now been accepted.

She has not settled very well in her current school. Her main issue is she doesn't like to eat food at school - neither packed lunch or school dinners. She is only 4 and was premature and she does have food issues except when she is at home.

Both the schools are nice. Her current schools head teacher is great. The new schools headteacher i havent met but the early years headteacher is very nice as well. Dd doesn't make friends so easily. But to my surprise she did make a friend on the very first day at school apparently because both of the girls shoes were same. . She seems not to be friendly with her anymore though.

The new school i am thinking to change her to has given me flexibility in terms of providing her lunch if required or reduced hours considering she was premature and if she gets very tired and cant deal with the long hours. Also her best friend is at the new school and she is offered to be in the same class as him. Although when i ask her if you want to go to new school with your best friend she says no. Because she likes to be in the school with her current teacher. The other reason she gives me is that she doesn't wants to go to any school and just wants to stay with me.

I feel that she will settle quickly with her best friend around and if she is happy she might start eating her food too.

I am really confused what should I do. I am very stressed seeing her cry every day for not going to school. But part of me thinks whay if she doesn't settle over there as well.

Please advise.

You never know what is or isn't going to work.
You have good reasons for moving her, so go for it. She isn't settled where she is so you are unlikely to make things worse.
4yo aren't very good at imagining change.

Hey - shoes being the same, or lighting up in a cool manner is deeply significant and awesome if you're a 4 year old! (My 5 year old came out strutting with pride that someone in her class had told her her shoes were really cool that they lit up recently)

I moved DD1 at the end of her reception year when my list of small concerns about the school got so big I couldn't ignore it anymore and it was just becoming so obvious that socially she was a really poor fit there, plus I didn't feel they were going to be set up to meet DD2's needs and she was due to start there - it was absolutely fine - DD1 settled beautifully and came out after the first day announcing she was going to teach her new class when she was a grown up.

Little thing I found that really helped with the transition in her mind was the uniform. I found once she had that bought, and knew what colour it was going to be, and she'd seen the playground - that was it, sorted and fine in her mind (it's funny what clicks for them sometimes).

From the reactions of various professionals I've had dealing with DD2 over the last year or so when we've talked about schools and they've let the professional guard slip slightly - I dodged a fairly large bullet in terms of how poorly they feel the original school would have been dealing with DD2's needs and I always get an "oooh I know them - they're fantastic" when their current school's mentioned.