Did your teen keep their school friends once they had moved to 6th form?

[pocketfullofdynamite]

I’m not worried, just curious!
DS’s school didn’t have a 6th form so they’ve all moved elsewhere. Quite a few have gone to the same one. For others, including DS, they’ve ended up with one or two of them in the same place over quite a few different schools / colleges.
He’s been friends with the same big group for a good few years and they’re really close. They’re still meeting up regularly. There’s been some mingling with “old” and “new” friends which is lovely. DS has also been hanging out with new friends.

What did others find happened at this stage?

We moved to another country! DS has kept in touch with 2 of his old group of friends. One he speaks to via gaming weekly; the other he sees on our visits back to the UK. Here in our new country, one of his best school friends has moved school, but they speak weekly and meet up locally every couple of weeks.

I’ve always been clear with him that your real friends are those that you pick up with where you left off, no matter how long it’s been since you saw or spoke to them. DS is always aware that moving school means making new friends, both for himself and his mates.

DD moved to 6th form college with half her form. So yes. They stayed friends. DS has had the same friendship group for 40 years. Since he was 11.

Mine stayed at the same school for 6th form. School group became stronger and 2 new groups were formed with new kids who joined at 6th. Now at uni and she meets all of them separately and often, along with her uni group.

Ours have all scattered and they seem to be vaguely keeping in touch but new groups and friendships are forming too

Mine has just started Y12 at a specialist performing arts college and is navigating new friendships. She is still meeting up with old school friends but I feel like that's starting to drift a bit.

Our DD was hideously bullied. She went to 6th form in another county and an hour long train journey away.
She's only kept up with one boy and left university last year with a great core group of about 6 good friends

My DC stayed at the same school but there were quite a lot of newcomers, plus the school had two halves to each year who were taught separately lower down the school but were all mixed together in sixth form, so they did make new friends too. I'd say my elder two stuck with mainly the same friends but my youngest had quite a shift. He didn't "fall out" with anyone, but met new people in his A level classes that he maybe had more in common with. That said, he's visited the lad who was his best friend from Year 7 more since they started University than anyone else, and they'd drifted apart a bit in 6th form.

Yes, he has a very close group of friends. Some are in their second year of uni and they visit each other all over the country. Others are doing apprenticeships (like my son) in the local area and they see each other all the time.

No but she’s fairly anti social. She burned her bridges. Also didn’t really make many friends in sixth form - girls she hung out with but not interested in keeping in touch. She did do an art foundation course and found her people! She’s in touch with them even though they are all at different universities.

So far but my kid only started college this September. They go to quite a subject-specific college, that attracts students from a very large geographical area with college transport so their new friends are not local...all between 30 mins and an hour away. They play for a local sports team so see them couple of times a week and also meet up with friends from school who live walking distance

DD is Year 13, was in a similar situation with no school sixth form and her friends going to various places. They definitely still chat online, she sees them a few times, not that often. Also now has lovely sixth form friends.

Still in touch with some old friends but lots of new too....including some she was originally at school with but didn't hang out with.

One stayed at school 6th form, but made new friends, due to people being friendly with people doing the same subjects and having the same timetables as them. They still saw other friends (from Yrs 7 - 11) though, and now, at 30, see both sets of friends.

The others went to different 6th forms and made new friends, but, again, kept in touch with friends from Yrs 7 - 11 and now in mid 20s, see a mix of both.

My 18 yo dd joined in year 9 and stayed for 6th form. She has kept in touch with people over Snapchat, who left after year 11 and made a firm friend with one girl, who left at the end of year 9, who she still sees.

So far dd is keeping in touch better with her 6th form group, formed mostly from people, who stayed on and a new joiner. She wasn’t friends with all of this group in lower years. They started evening meet ups down the pub in year 13, so I think it’s easier to continue that now.

She still sees a friend from primary and a couple of others, who went to her out of school activities. These friends she sees individually, unlike her school friends, who bar one lad, that she’s really good friends with are more of a socialising group.

My older son is now 22. He always kept 3 friends from school (who didn't go to the same sixth form college), 1 from sixth form, 3 from extracurricular theatre club (attended for 10+ years), 2 from foundation year and now he is studying abroad but in touch regularly with all of the above.

DS is in last year of school. There is a loose large group of friends that I know probably half of by name.

But his two closest mates from about a year after we moved here are still.his best fruends. One never went to school with him, the other just left at the end of sixth form to go to college.

His friendships seem to mirror mine at the moment. Three friends not going to same school, but stayed friends over decades still meet for lunch once a month. Don't know if DS friendship.group will.make it that far but I have a feeling it will.

Hardest part is he does go out to socialise a lot with them as he doesn't see them at school.and I worry about it eating into study time. But he's 18 in two months, maintaining high grades, and it's time for me to let him make decisions.

My DS is now in his 30s. He has the same best friends he’s had since primary school. In fact his closest friend he went to nursery with.

I have 2 DS, 22 and 20. They have a wide range of friends (both of them) from primary, secondary and now uni. DS 22 was abroad last year and several mates went to see him. DS20 spent the summer interrailing with primary school friends (7 of them). We still go skiing with primary school families! I was very different and didn’t particularly enjoy school. I’m in touch with a couple of people but certainly wouldn’t want to spend that much time with them…. A coffee or an evening maybe.