DD Year 8 friend struggles

[SusieKin]

My DD who is almost 13 is struggling to make new friends. She is a kind and loyal girl but can’t find friends who reciprocate this. The small group of friends she has are very quiet and won’t socialise despite her best efforts but she is struggling to make friendships with anyone else. She doesn’t have any contact with her friends outside of school despite hers and my best efforts. I am not sure why this they won’t meet out of school but my DD definitely needs something more from her friends.

Her school is quite small and doesn’t have a lot of girls so she is struggling to find a good friend. I am thinking about asking the school to move her class but I am not sure if this would make things worse in a small school as the girls will always want to know why she was moved.

She has also tried joining lots of clubs/activities etc in school and outside but still doesn’t seem to make a proper friend.

Has anyone had a similar situation by or moved class mid year?

I taught Y8 for 20 years - it can be a dreadful year, particularly for girls and friendship issues. Have you spoken to her class tutor/ Head of Year? School should have some sort of peer mentoring or Buddy system to introduce her to other like minded girls.
I’m not sure moved her class would help as presumably they are mixed in set groups for most lessons? Does she find socialising difficult generally? How is she with family etc?

She is quiet and doesn’t make friends easily, but she does put her self out there. She attends clubs that I know she has no interest in just to meet new people. There are only 8 girls in her class and they are only set for one subject so is pretty much with the same people each day. That’s one of the reasons why I considered changing her class.

Does she have a friend/possible friend in the other class? Does she go to Upper School next year?

She says there are some nice girls in another class who are not in a proper friendship group so a class move there is a possibility. She will stay in the same school/form next year as well. The school is quite small with three classes each year of no more than 20. I think there are only 30 girls in the whole year.

Any possibility of moving her to a bigger school? 30 girls in a year is really small at secondary level.

I'd also be tempted to move schools - 30 girls is not very many potential friendships. If that 's not an option and there are other girls in other classes that she thinks she might get on with, why doesn't she sit with them at break or lunch? Not much socialising will happen during class.