Moving a happy child to a “better” school?

[Needmorewine]

Really struggling witj this . We chose the school DC is currently at as it has a very caring ethos and at the time this was what she needed, DD has surprised us all by being incredibly academic, exceeding in all areas end of reception and already exceeding in all by this time in year 1. She is happy and has lots of friends . However I can’t help but think another schools near us may now be a better fit. They actively Prep for 11+ which I think she would have a decent shot at. They are bigger schools and seem to have
More funding / resources and have a higher expectation and seem to offer much more in the way of lunchtime and after school clubs / school trips / school council. Parents I know with children at these schools feel their DC are happy. School we may move her too has top results in borough and now a place is available. Got a good vibe when I
Looked around. Currently I feel DD has no real competition in her class and I don’t think this is good long term. I realise I sound like an Arrogant whatsit but I can’t vocalise this to anyone in RL. Do I move her from somewhere she is happy to somewhere she may not be? Or as a confident little thing do I take a place on offer at a school with better results and have faith she will settle and make friends there too and be more challenged ? She spends a lot of time after she has finished her work either helping another child(ren) or reading a book on the carpet. As someone who did not do well at school I desperately want DD to achieve her potential. Anyone done similar ? Again apologies for sounding so arrogant.

If she likes science, she might enjoy these videos.

CrashCourseKids

Ooooh thank you !

Yr 1 is very young and some of other other children should start to catch up esp in reading.
Our DD was above average in R and Y1 at our tiny village school. By Y2 she was spinning her wheels and lacked peers esp amongst the girls. Getting her to do workbooks at home became a battle so I got a friend to tutor her for a year which worked well. The school has v limited extra curricular as the school is small and in my opinion the staff are not very ahem dynamic. The school were unwilling to stretch her academically and hid behind the curriculum which was disappointing. The best teacher was an NQT with fresh ideas! year 3 we moved her to a private school as the other state schools around here are pretty poor and we have no grammar schools.
DS is in Y1. Early indications are he is brighter than his sister. He is top reader in his year but way off free reader. However academically his year is stronger than his sister's so the situation is better. However he now knows all the extracurricular activities at his sister's school so is asking to move there. It's a 1 hour bus ride so we hope to get your the end of year 1 or year 2 before moving him...

I think that can be the downside of a small school.

My child has done activities most nights at her 3 class intake juniors

The after school clubs are limited and don't have any theme other than childcare... they did start labeling them e.g. Lego club after I said they needed more variety but apparently there was no Lego going on... we don't use it unless it offers something specific. There is no choir etc. 1 hockey match a year...

Thats a real shame :( Ours has a choir (went to royal albert hall) an orchestra that plays regularly. An end of year performance for choir and orchestra.

Also sports such as Tag rugby, netball, gymnastic, swim team, athletics, football...and those are just the one's weve done! They may well not be of the high standard in a private school but theyre not missing out! Ive been really pleased with my daughters extra curricular even though shes a bright kid in a fairly ordinary school. I think it does make a difference that they're not a small school. In many ways we're very lucky.

But wrt OP those things have all made up her school experience, not just the academic side of school. I do think in some areas people are attracted to the posher school with results but can get caught up in a tutor race and a lot of pressure to perform.

We're happily preparing for 11+ with WH smith books but may do a few tutor sessions next summer. I dont want her to fdel her life depends on it!

For science in London, try Kew Gardens, London Zoo, the London Transport Museum Future Engineers, canal museum, Open House to look at new projects. Talk about how buildings stand up! Riba could do events for children. Look at the Engineering institutions too. St Paul’s to look at the dome. Look at Time Out to see what’s on for children with a science theme.

Fantastic thank you bubbles

This year I did exactly what you are thinking of doing! My dd was very happy at her old school... absolutely amazing, very caring friendly etc, but she was the brightest in the year group and everyone knew it. She was exceeding in everything... but she was bored half the time. So I applied for yr at another school which was quite competitive academically avd also offered many extra curricular clubs. She got a place and I moved her in sept... the first two weeks were hard, but now she loves it.. there are 2 other children like her, and the teachers give her lots of challenging work.. now she comes home and tells me all the new things that she is learning.. instead of I’m
Bored.. Although she misses her friends at times, she alrwdyu has few best friends and I am so happy that I moved her.. good luck

I would go against the grain here and say leave her where she is happy, as long as you genuinely think it is a good school. We also sent DD to a small and kind primary as she was a nervous little thing and I wanted her somewhere where her mental well-being was prioritised. The school changed a bit over the years and became a bit less child-centred but was still what I consider to be a good school despite being hugely unpopular in the local area - we know tons of people who went to any lengths to avoid it. It is socially very mixed, and has higher FSM , SEN and EAL than any of the other local schools.

DD was always an academic high flyer from the beginning and was some way ahead of the pack from the start. She was always picked for extension/G&T activities etc. She got into the local super-selective and another high achieving (independent) school with very little preparation and is now absolutely flying at the independent school.

I actually think being at her primary taught her some important life lessons in a number of ways and that it also prepared her well for challenge in that she has had to learn how to challenge herself over a number of years and has learnt how to be a self-starter. She is more than keeping up, according to her teachers.

Based on this, I'd leave your child in the small and nurturing environment. However, I will say that she wasn't often bored as some people have said about their children as she did have good enrichment and extension activities (until year 6 which was bloody awful and another kettle of fish entirely because of SATs).

I moved mine from a larger school to smaller - academically she's pretty much top of the class in both cohorts but socially she needed that more nurturing environment and actually, being the big fish in the smaller pond has done wonders for her behaviour, maturity and confidence. She was really floundering socially where she was though (results are about even between the two although the previous school coaches much more to the test than her current one does) and socially she's a much better fit where she moved to.

For us though it was very clear cut in that I could just "see" her fitting in better in the new school when we looked around there.

I think it's one where you could analyze yourself round in circles about it and have to go a little bit on your emotions and instinct at the end of the day. You know your own child - whether they're like DD1 who is academically high flying (greater depth across the board) but socially a bit more ill at ease, or academically and socially amazing, or a very uneven profile of how their development is like DD2 (greater depth at some point with a dip of not at expected level in an area she has SEN in).

@HexagonalBattenburg we were the exact same with our child. The school move was the best thing we did for him.