Changing schools next year?

So there's a lot happening in DD's life towards the end of this year, early next year. Early November her baby brother will be born. After this year's school is finished, she will be moving from living with her Dad fulltime and seeing me and DH every second weekend to us doing week on/week off shared care - or at least that's the plan. She will also be starting at a new school that is closer to us rather than near Dad's house.

The living arrangement change and school change is largely because for most of the year she hasn't been happy at her current school, very few friends and the ones she does have aren't exactly what I'd call "friends" - they pick on her, exclude her and occasionally even bully her physically. The school itself has not been very supportive of her or really even done anything to address the bullying she's getting from other kids in class. They have been inconsistent in their standards and attempts to address this with the school have fallen on deaf ears. So for both myself and XP, enough was enough. I want her out of that school.

But the question now becomes with everything going on for her during quite a short period, is there any ways I can make the transitions easier for her? I've started talking to her about our expectations and what living with us will be like, we'll have her over the school holidays so well before school starts so she can get settled in and everything, but what else should I be looking out for?

Anyone?

Try to check the school's standards, rules and regulations as well as their curriculum. Might as well interview other parents whose kids are studying in that school how their kids are doing in that school.

That's a lot for a little girl to go through all at once. Maybe your daughter would benefit from some counselling; even if she's excited about the move, having someone impartial to talk to can only be a positive.

Good luck with it all.

That's exactly the sort of massive change that - in a supportive environment - builds resiliance. However, resiliance takes skills, so if you feel you need some support in that regard, it could be a good idea to find a counsellor, psychologist, or even a positive psychology course aimed at kids.

Is there any possibility you could take her to open day or a visit at the new school, just so she has the lie of the land before her first day? Also, regardless of the fact that the friends have not been good to her, it could be helpful to give her the option of maintaining contact in a way that she chooses. My DD had a similar set of "friends" in her last school (although she managed to develop a more positive dynamic in the end before she left) and she collected all their phone numbers, addresses, emails for msn, etc before she left. One of the nicer girls wrote a couple of letters over the christmas break, DD sent some postcards, etc, and then it was time for the new school and it was literally only a few weeks before she had a new posse of genuinely friendly friends. (*phew*). After that she was happy to let the contact die off.