I don't want my daughter to be in the same class as another child when she starts secondary school

[L1979]

My daughter will be starting secondary school in September and another child from her primary school class will also be attending the same secondary school. For numerous reasons I do not want my daughter to be in the same class in secondary school as this child. Is it appropriate to write to the school and ask that they not be placed in the same form?

You can ask for them to be in different tutor groups but it is possible they will he together for classes and there's much less flexibility on that.

Yes I emailed with concerns and the school listened. It would have been a nightmare for my DD to be anywhere near this girl.

Our school liaises with the primaries re friendship groups and bad combinations. So yes you can ask the new school, but also talk with y6 teacher.

If the secondary runs parallel halves of the year for y7 then you could ask if possible to be placed in a different half which would mean that no lessons would be joint, even if set.

I doubt they will be finalising tutor groups until quite late e.g. after May half term as they will want all waiting lists and appeals to be sorted first, (and then may also be focussing on GCSEs.)

Yes i think it's fine. Is there a primary liaison person? You could email them. In dc school it would be possible for them to not be in any lessons together for the first 2 years if they were in different halves of the school.
Dd was lucky in that she was put in a different tutor group from a few mean kids, but she's actually found when she has come up against them, they've been ok. I think when they go to secondary the mean kids have got bigger fish to fry dealing with mean kids from other schools and don't bother with kids they looked down on for not being cool at primary. Dd has been much happier at secondary and has got a lot more friends

The primary school might be doing a 'handover' for some pupils. Our Yr6 teacher did one for some of the pupils in her class. This involved seeing a Learning Coordinator at the secondary school. Some of the children were those with special needs, some were not. My DC has minor difficulties but another child we know was struggling with the idea of secondary and a further child had a bullying issue with someone else going to same secondary.

When DS3 moved to Ds2's secondary they usually put siblings in the same House. I went in and spoke to them and requested he be put in a different House specifically to avoid the Y7 form tutor DS2 got. They put him in a different one.

It should be. At my dc's school for the first 2 years they operate in two halves and they never have anything to do with the other half. You can request a child goes in the opposite half if you want.

Yup, DCs school took account of such issues - there were ten classes and two bands so its not impossible.

We have two year half's who never mix so it would be possible if there were good enough reasons.

Yes - most secondaries seem very open to accommodating these requests.

Say to her primary teacher when they start talking about secondary so they are not in the same form/registration class if is also perfectly reasonable to email the secondary school stating the reasons, I did this when one of mine went up to high school dd and the girl were on the transition programme so went 1 day a week before starting but there was no way i wanted them in the same class.

Yes definitely. I run transition.
Email the head of transition or head of Y7 and explain what's going on. Also keep your y6 teacher in the loop.
It is worth mentioning that you would be grateful if they were in separate half years, though that element might only be decided once the timetable for next year is published.

This isn't uncommon and heads of year7 / transition leads get a handful of these requests annually.