Moving schools year 11

[MrsMoooo]

Hello, my daughter has been bullied at school for 4 years now, this has ranged between low level, to outride threats. The schools dealings with the other children have mainly involved sanctions and these have been totally ineffective.
Now my daughters close friends are leaving the school (due to bullying) and my daughter faces her last year without any friends or support.
She claims there is literally no one else she can be friends with and no one else likes her.
So my question is simply, do I move schools at this late stage and risk her education and possibly give her the chance of a fresh start or do I keep her there with no friends and disengaged with her education?
Home schooling is impossible, she is diagnosed with ADHD and shows some signs of Autism.
Would really appreciate advise particularly from educational experts.

If you think your DD won't cope then move her.

You will need to accept consequences on the GCSEs though. Quite possibly lose 1 or even 2 options due to time tabling / different syllabus, and use gained time to catch up on core if taught in a different order, different set texts etc.

But, speaking as a mum of a DD who missed all of y11 due to MH issues, you really don't want a breakdown, and sacrificing a couple of GCSEs could be worth it.

Where are friends leaving to? Can you go to the same place?

Do the new school use the exam board and are they covering the same texts etc for the exams?

if yes then I’d talk to them carefully and probably go for it

if no then it’ll need more careful consideration but your dd’s mental health has to come first.

Exams can be redone another time

Home school for 1 and the other is moving away!
so no go there. 😭

Have also recently had an assessment from CAMHS as mental health pretty low.,

What will she need for 'next steps'?

Maths, English Language, plus 3? others?
If doing A levels will have some specific subjects and grades.

Know what you need to prioritise.

Get talking to other schools now. See who sound flexible and helpful.
Might help to have a list of subjects she is doing, and boards, plus major topics covered / set texts etc.

Yes that makes sense, I’ve looked at the schools online and it seems non of the local schools are doing exactly the same English lit books, this of course will be much harder for her! So it’s a good idea to try and concentrate on the core syllabus.

Note. If a set text she has already done is on syllabus for exam board at new school then in theory she could still answer question on it in exam. However she wouldn't get any help revising it.

You just need to prioritise. Aim for current school and full set of gcses, but she may be very unhappy, not work or miss school, OR swap schools, hopefully happier, but reduced number of gcses and some reduced grades.

Thx everyone, had a nightmare couple of days. So daughter instead of attending school this week, ran away. We got a message from her saying she wouldn’t come back if we sent her back to her school.
I guess that’s made the decision for us. Mental health trumps education!
New school may or may not work, but we feel it can’t be worse than what she’s going through now.

Sorry to hear that, but agree it means only one decision really.

I hope you can come to an agreement with a new school this side of the summer, so any catch up can be started and she doesn't spend 6 weeks worrying.

Could you homeschool alongside the other friend being homeschooled?
Share the tuition costs for core subjects.

I'm so sorry she has been going through this.

I would take her out of school too.

One of my son's friends changed school in year 10. He re-took year 10 at the new school (summer born and moved to a private school) so that he would be able to do the whole new GCSE syllabus. I don't know if this is feasible (or desirable) for your daughter?

I wish you all the best, the situation currently is clearly terrible and I hope you get it resolved soon.

Can't you see about an early college transfer. A lot of colleges take y11s for GCSE now.l

Have you got another school where she wants to go? Take a deep breath and look at all your options.
School could provide her with work to do at home. Just sometimes kids don't want another school either and your problems can carry on. Phone colleges etc. you need some support from education welfare.

Look at Minerva Online School - would fit your daughter's profile.

Mental health trumps education! this in spades.

As evidenced by several posters over the last couple of years college can be a brilliant place to gain qualifications if she doesn't do great in her GCSEs.

Homeschooling can be done online, have a look at the home ed board it isn't you providing her with work.

There are a lot of resources online she can access youtube being one of them especially for English Lit, breaking down themes, how to structure a response etc from actual teachers depending if she decides to stick with the original text or switch to the one the new school will teach.

How's things @MrsMoooo?

Good luck to you and your DD. I think a reasonably able and motivated kid can make up any bits they might miss out on due to swapping schools half way through GCSEs and it certainly sounds like she cant flourish at her present school, poor mite.

re the adhd might medication help? It’s bloody hard to get hold of at the mo but might be worth looking into if she has issues focusing.

My own son has ADHD and autism and thrived with home education. He too was miserable in school.

We also took him out of school at the end of Y10. They expected him to fail all his GCSEs despite being bright. Through home education he ended up with all 8s and 9s.

Many children in home education have similar diagnoses. It could be worth joining a FB group for home educators to just see how people handle it and how it may work for your daughter.

The beauty of HE is you can adapt the learning method and pace to suit your child. And let them recover

If you are interested please feel free to PM me I can send you some FB group names.

Many thx everyone who responded. We’re just letting things calm down a bit first. Everything has happened so quickly. Have been in contact with original school and explained there is not a cat in hell chance my daughter is walking through those gates again. Interesting that the safeguarding lead only now shows an interest, after years of bullying and harassment from other students.
She is putting together a home TLP (teaching/learning program) this will at least ensure she treads water educationally rather than totally falling off that cliff edge.
In the meantime she will contact hopefully new school and request a site placement.
We are intending if possible to keep core subjects going, the rest aren’t important enough to cause more stress.
I wouldn’t totally discount Home Ed, but my daughter doesn’t follow any instructions at home even now. Part of her ADHD is oppositional, which makes home life alone a real challenge without the pressure of being teacher too!
thx again, I’ll keep u posted. 😘

That sounds really positive. I'm a home ed advocate but I feel you are right not to plummet in that direction. Good luck. Hope your dd can have some recovery and you both deserve some self care.