Moving Schools

On the first day back to school after the Christmas holidays it wasn’t just an ordinary first day back for our daughter Zara. She had her first day at school for the second time!

We made a big decision to transfer to the nearest school which was our 2nd choice school when we did the original application.
It wasn’t a decision that was made lightly and my partner and I fretted over for quite a while. I’d lost sleep over it battling it over in my head – should we shouldn’t we?

I couldn’t think of anything worse than having Zara leave her friends behind and start afresh but with the walk being around 2.5 miles each way it was becoming too much. Too far for Zara to walk so we were using the double pram and too long for Zayah to be sat in the pram. She’d be trying to make an escape whilst next to the busiest road – so dangerous! Zara would be so tired having to get up so early for the long journey to school and it was taking its toll on myself and Reuben.
Now that she’s started at the new school we get to leave the house an hour later every morning (they start a bit later) and we can even pop to the shops after school and get back home over half an hour quicker than the time we’d usually get back from her old school.

Zara has coped brilliantly moving schools and we couldn’t be more proud. The school have been so accommodating, they’ve gone the extra mile to make sure that she’s okay while she adjusts to being around a new environment with new people.
The ofsted report for the new school was lower than the old school but they seem to pay more attention to the children, we can get regular updates of Zara through a website and they’ve been reading more with her. We’ve seen such a big improvement in her reading recently – she’s blending her letters more and starting to recognise some words without having to sound them out. Her handwriting is getting better and her letters, she loves doing spelling at home, enjoys maths and gets excited when they have PE!
I can safely say it was the best decision we’ve made. Seeing our little girl happy and thriving at school is the best feeling.

Some things that helped to prepare her for moving schools;

• We would show her where the new school is every time we walked past and told her how close it is to our house.
• We talked to her about making new friends and seeing some of her old friends from nursery there.
• The school let Zara come in for a half day the day after she finished at the old school so that she could meet the teachers and her new friends.
• We explained that it’s okay to feel nervous and anxious – grown ups get these feelings too.
• Plus loads of cuddles cos cuddles are the best.