Forms - Do they matter?

[ExitPursuedByABear]

DD is in Y7. When the forms were announced at the end of Y6 (for the move into the secondary school) some parents were unhappy and one girl was moved from DDs form into the other one. I was not particularly delighted with the form split but hoped that DD would make new friendships.

She has made some new friends but her main group of friends are all in the other class. These are the girls she spends break and lunchtimes with, but because she is the only one of the group not in the same form obviously misses out on lots of bonding time and some social stuff.

I was prepared to just carry on, but DD informed me yesterday that some new girls are arriving in Y8 and that the Head of Year had asked for volunteers to move from the other form. DD is concerned that 2 girls she does not get on with will move to be with two of their friends in DD's form, which could leave DD even more isolated. As the school is clearly going to mess around with the forms, I cannot decide whether I should go in and request that my DD is put with her friendship group. I know that friendship groups can change all the time so I don't want to request a move and then find that the group has dissolved in 6 months time.

I just remember when I was at school (a long, long time ago) there was one girl in the other form who always came into our form at lunchtimes and she looked at bit, well, lost.

On the one hand I feel that she is less distracted by not being with her 'friends' in lessons, but on the other hand I don't want her to lose out on the social scene.

WWYD

AFAIK, forms are for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the afternoon? That's what I gather from DS (Year 8).

Our secondary is clearly a little larger than yours; we have EIGHT forms (tutor groups) per year!

In Y7 they do spend a fair amount of lessons with their tutor group, but they are rapidly put into sets for the main subjects, and are subdivided differently for PE, DT etc. So by the time they get to Y8 they are a lot more mixed and see a lot less of their tutor group.

But if you have only two forms per year it will be very different, I guess.

There are ten in each year at DSs school I think.

How much time does your daughter spend in her form and how will this change next year? In ds's school, they spend all their time in form in Yr 7-9 apart from Maths, English and Science so your form group does matter a lot.

My daughter was refused a move. She wanted to as she had been asked to accompany a girl in year 7 who was having problems adjusting. It worked - so well - that the girl wouldn't leave her alone! Anyway, she went to Head of Year and was flatly refused - apparantly 'no one' can change - but they did appreciate the issue and sort the matter of the clingyness by the other girl.

Since then, lots of children have been moved. Quite annoyed my daughter but, I assume, their reasons were some sort of unresolvable differences which moving was the best option.

I think it is quite nice. Not one of her main friends are in her form but she has kept in touch with a couple of old friends by being with them who are in much higher sets than her and, otherwise, she would probably never see.

Kez Is your DD still friends with the girls not in her form?

There are only 33 girls split across 2 classes so quite small and not much to go at in terms of forming new friendships.

They are in forms for everything apart from Maths where they are streamed, and then they do Art and PE all together, and are split three ways for Domestice Science, Design & Technology and Needlecraft - doing one term of each.

It is just annoying that we were told there would be no alterations to the origianl forms, then one set of parents complained and their DD was moved, and now they are looking at messing around again and if I don't go in we will not know how DD will be affected.

Thanks for your replies. I want DD to make the decision if she wants me to say anything, but then there is no guarantee she would be moved.

Yes, all of her main friends are in different forms!

They meet children in the form and in their sets. Then, when they get to GCSE (my daughter is year 11 now) they meet even more children as every subject is a set or a GCSE group. By year 10 and 11, no subjects at all are taught in form groups. Not even PE or PSHCE.

I quite like it because the 'cool' groups - although they hang around together in their free time - in forms (because of the rule there are no moves) the 'cool' groups are usually dispersed. In smaller numbers, they tend to act differently and you get to see them as human (rather than a force).

The biggest issue with forms I have found is that they keep the same tutor all five years. I do think its a good idea generally but, unfortunately, my daughter's tutor really cannot be bothered (he isn't the best teacher either) and so they have missed out on developing a good relationship with him.

My DD is at a large school (10 form entry) and although she started off having friends in her tutor group, all of her best friends are now from her setted groups - maths, science, french etc - and from the sports teams. I appreciate that things are more tricky in a small school, but I wouldn't worry unduly unless she is very miserable.

Thanks all - she is not miserable, and I should chill out about it as the friendship groups change all the time - I just hate to think of her setting out every break and lunchtime looking for her 'friends' in the other form.

Probably best to do nothing - my usual line of attack.