Moving schools Y10

[Mumofteens2]

Hi, does anyone have any positive experience of moving a teen mid year 10? My bright DD has been unhappy in school since Y8, mostly around making friends. Her best friend (she would say her only friend) really wasn’t a positive influence & unfortunately moved away last year. Since then my DD has been really down about the school and constantly on at us to let her move to another local school where there are couple of girls she hangs around with socially. My head says it’s a crazy time to leave and really she has to just get her head down until her GCSEs are finished. On the other hand I can see how upset and miserable she is and has been for a long time. She’s had counselling, talks to the teachers, talks to us but nothing makes a difference and she thinks the only thing that will make her happy would be moving school. She’s recently started talking about just not turning up to school, not bothering to do any work for her exams – but I can see that she feels desperate and doesn’t know how else to get our attention. I’m really hoping some of you have some positive experiences of moving a teenager at this stage and it not impacting their GCSE results.

Yes I had to move my DD in June of y10 last year into another school, very bright but similar situation and she now is much happier, has a lot more friends and in her mocks got similar grades to before. We do have a slight issue at the moment with the teacher assessed grades being low in half of subjects, often a 7 when she has consistently achieved a 9 and its as only using data from current school and they say one mock isnt enough. She also sat a couple aftere due to anxiety and these are not allowed to be used. But that should resolve over the year.

My

I know a girl who has just changed in yr9 and it's working out really well for her. Much happier.

I did check all exams she was doing and content at new and old school before moving to check it was similar and checked with new school they could do wt least 9 of her choices and put her in top sets and they could. Schools do teach in different orders though but in her mocks she mainly got 9s with only 1 previous subject going down and several up a grade from end y10. She does a lot by herself at home self teaching and do need that.

Thanks for your comments, really appreciate it. My DD is naturally bright and says she will put in extra work to catch up but I’m not sure she will! The School she’s thinking of is much bigger than the current one so the pool of people she can make friends with will be much better. We need to make a decision really quickly and your experiences help.

I would say how she did in lockdown re work would be a good indicator of whether she will do work by herself or not, there will be catching up to do. But an unhappy child school refusing grades will likely fall if nothing is done and if off a lot teacher assessment can get dicey. I was very nervous but mine just could not cope anymore so I moved her and it has worked out very well. It is worth approaching other school and looking on website for exam boards etc as you really need a supportive school for it to work well. And you need to monitor it closely once moved especially if looks like teacher assessment or ongoing issues which some probably will persist but to a lesser degree. Hope it works out for you both.

Thank you, really appreciate your response.

Not sure if this thread still active or you have decided what to do but we recently moved our daughter in YR 10 and although been a few problems it was definitely the best decision for her and she is doing well in the near,school. Good luck