Relocating and moving schools, would you do an inset day ahead of son joining new school Y2

[JDAJ]

Hi! We are relocating to a completely new area 3 hours away and my son is starting his new school after the Easter holidays. He is 5 and will be joining in Y1. We brought the relocation forward a few years as we wanted to move whilst he was still little. This will be our forever home and up until now he's been really excited to move, although I wasn't sure how much of it he understood. Anyway, he had his first wobble last night about moving schools, so i'm trying to work out the best way to help him and make it as positive as possible. We have an inset day booked at the new school in March where he'll spend the whole school day there, meet his new classmates etc and he's been 'buddied' up with another little boy. However I'm now beginning to wonder whether this is a good idea. It could either go really well and therefore help with the transition, or it could go terribly wrong and he hate it and then I'll have a tough job getting him to go back. They've said for him to go in his current school uniform, so he's going to look like the new boy and stand out and I'm not sure he'll like all the attention. I know I'm probably assuming the worst but I'm starting to think whether this is a good idea. So WWYD? Would it be better to just start afresh after the Easter Holidays or have this taster day before he starts? TIAx
(sorry title says Y2, should say Y1 but I can't change it now!)

Taster day, definitely - otherwise he just has no idea what is happening, and the whole thing is a massive scary unknown

Agree - definitely do the Taster day

Hmm, generally I would agree that a taster day is of benefit - my son had to move primary twice due to unavoidable house moves, once in Y1 and once in Y5 and would have benefitted from a taster day both times. However... you describe it as an inset day which makes me think it's an inset for your current school and therefore possibly the last day of term for the new school? I'm not sure I'd send in for a taster day on the last day of term - I mean everyone is usually in high spirits which is nice but also quite unsettled and out of routine and I wonder whether the usual 'this is the new boy, can you look after him?' stuff will go down as well?

I would try to send him in new uniform if possible, or a stripped back version as close as possible if not - so grey trousers/white polo or whatever. Not the old school jumper.

Thank you so much for your replies. The taster day is mid term so fortunately not at the end of term. I've spoken to the teacher who was very understanding, I'm sure they deal with this all the time!

Taster day in uniform, defo. Hope the move goes well