Should the school insist on this?

[thequickbrowndog]

My daughter is starting grammar school in September. She has done amazingly to get there. She is very anxious and has come from a tiny close knit school. Luckily a few kids from her primary school are going to the same school. They have all been split up in different forms, and my daughter is in the other half of the year to her school mates so won't even be in any of the same classes.
Am I wrong to insist that she is moved to the half of the year her friends are in? Surely her mental health is more important than their rules? She will stress all summer about this and is already saying she doesn't want to go to school in September.

OP - you know your daughter best, and you have experience of secondary school children. I agree with the spotter who said to have a chat to the school about it now so that it doesn’t come as a surprise to them once term starts and there may be less flexibility.

There may well be some movement in pupils over the summer, so the opportunities to move classes may be greater now than later. You are the main advocate for your daughter so do what your gut tells you. I’m sure you’re not going to go in there heavy handed ‘insisting’ but have an honest chat with them about your concerns and whether it is a random allocation or if there was a rationale behind their decision.

Lots of people ‘advised me’ to take a step back from my son’s secondary school and leave them to it - it didn’t feel right to me and I have continued to communicate regularly with them and raise concerns and make support requests, and we are currently in a position where he is successfully at the end of his first academic year there and has done fantastically in core subjects. I really don’t think we would be there had I left them to it, they just don’t have the resources to do it all. I have always approached it as me and the school in partnership for the benefit of my son’s education and it has worked really well.

Good luck on Monday!

Good for you! And thank you x

At my daughter’s high school you could specify if there were children you had a reason not to be placed with but not friends. She got placed with miss from her school but no one she had any sort of friendship with.

literally had new friends within 24 hours.

This is genuinely a deal for a day or so max, honestly. She will still be able to see her friends and breaks. Don’t do this, it won’t help your child in reality.