How can changing schools affect a child

Should your child change schools? How to decide

Posted on May 5, 2021 by southvalleyacademy

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Changing schools is a big decision and not one to take lightly — especially if the transition is happening mid-year. This is especially true for middle and high school students — adolescence is such an important time of emotional, social, and academic growth, and transitions during this time can be challenging.

However, there are some circumstances where a change is warranted, and even necessary. Whether you’re considering a switch due to a shift in family circumstances or because you’re dissatisfied with their current school, here are some tips to help you make your decision.

Is changing schools the right decision?

Research shows moving schools can affect a student’s development, both for better and worse. Some studies on student mobility have shown that changing schools frequently can negatively impact students’ engagement, self-perception and grades.

This seems to be particularly true for students in grades 8-12, so it’s important to carefully consider the pros and cons before switching middle or high schools.

Depending on your student’s and family’s situation, the positives of transferring to a new school will outweigh any drawbacks.

Possible downsides of switching schools can include:

Disruption to the class, as well as your student’s and family’s routine.
Changing schools can make it challenging to build strong relationships within the school community, including teachers, administrators, and peers.
It can be tough for your teen or preteen to find his or her place in a new social circle.
Curriculum varies from school to school and different classes move at different paces. It can take some time to get up to speed academically at a new school.

These downsides, and others, are why many experts recommend not switching between middle and high school if it can be avoided by staying in South Valley Academy, just right next door for 5-8th grade.

By staying at South Valley Academy through middle onto high school, students benefit from a stable school community throughout these formative years. We also share our campus with our K-4 partner school South Phoenix Prep & Arts, which makes the move from 4th to 5th grade a smooth transition.

When should your student change schools?

Your family circumstances have changed

If your family moves to a new location, changing schools is likely unavoidable. Likewise, if your student was attending private school, a job loss or financial hardship might mean a switch to public school is necessary. The good news is there are outstanding tuition-free public school options available to your family.

Your child is unhappy

If your child is unhappy, it’s important to find out why. Lots of kids will resist going to school sometimes, or claim to “hate school.” Some kids have more trouble making friends than others, or feel like they don’t fit in socially.

But if they never have anything good to say at the end of the day, if they pretend to be sick every day, or if their mood has dramatically shifted — then it might be a sign that something bigger is going on.

They’re not progressing

Whether they’re not challenged, or they’re struggling, if your teen isn’t making progress, that’s cause for concern. Your child’s middle or high school should be helping them learn, grow, and develop in lots of ways — academically, socially, emotionally. If that’s not happening, or if they’re regressing in some way, it’s time to look at why.

Safety concerns

Your child’s safety is of the utmost importance. If they aren’t safe due to the location of the school, bullying, or questionable peer groups, a switch may be warranted.

Their needs are not addressed

There are a variety of needs your child might have that are not being addressed by a school. Some of these may include:

• Not challenged / too easy
• Struggling academically
• No creative outlets
• No sports / extracurricular activities
• Unsupported learning disabilities or special needs
• Social isolation or trouble fitting in

One of these issues doesn’t necessarily mean a change is needed. There may be other options, such as switching classes, participating in extracurricular activities or sports outside of school, switching to a gifted program, or determining if they would benefit from an IEP.

What to consider when switching to a new middle or high school

There are some important factors to consider when researching new schools and preparing for a transition. These include:

Their feelings – How do they feel about switching schools? If the transition to a new school is unwanted (but unavoidable) how can you help make it a positive experience?

Their relationships – How will you support your teen in making new friends at school and/or maintaining existing friendships?

The quality of education your teen will receive – What is the school’s approach to academics? How do they help prepare students to be college and career-ready?

The quality of teachers – How does the school support their teachers? Is professional development and training available to support and empower them to be effective?

Class size – What is the maximum number of students in a classroom? Are there enough staff members available to give your student individualized attention?

Availability of sports, arts and other extracurricular activities – Students benefit enormously from arts education, including visual and performing arts, as well as athletics. These activities teach students to see the world in new ways, develop teamwork and communication skills, and build strong and healthy bodies.

Ready to take the next step? Contact us to see what Skyline Schools are all about!

How to make a mid-year switch positive

Start a conversation

Discuss the move as a family and talk to your student about how they feel about the transition. Keep the lines of communication open throughout — as you visit schools and and as they settle in at the new one.

Focus on the positives

Focus on all the new experiences your student will have and new friends they’ll make. This is important whether the switch is happening due to a negative experience at their previous school, or for other reasons.

If your student isn’t happy about the transition, talk to them about how it’s OK to be sad about leaving their old school (change is always hard!) but it can also be exciting to start something new!

Schedule a visit

Make a plan to visit the new school for a tour. Meet the administrators and new teacher if possible and let your student ask any questions they have about the new school.

Maintain existing relationships with friends

Help your student maintain existing friendships from their old school. Arrange times to get together, and encourage them to text, call or email each other — especially if distance is a factor.

Pick an activity

Choosing a sport to play, or picking a music, dance, art, or theatre class is a great way to explore a new skill and make friends at the new school. In our high schools, both arts and athletics are integrated into each day’s schedule — and our athletic program is among the best in the state.

Our dedicated coaching staff consists of highly qualified professionals who provide the best opportunity for every student-athlete. Students can choose from Football, Basketball, Co-Ed Soccer, and Track.

Get involved

Get involved in the school community by attending a game, performance or other event. With a top-ranked athletic program, it’s always fun to root on our Tigers!

We’re also big believers in parent participation and we encourage parents to attend our Parent Action Team meetings.

Final thoughts

We know there’s a lot to think about when you’re considering a change of schools. As you consider your options, we want you to know that we’re here to help.

Contact us to learn more about our school community or schedule a time to visit. We’d be happy to answer all your questions and share information about how our programs can support your child’s character development as well as academic, arts, and athletic goals.

If you’re ready to enroll, start your application here. It’s not too late to join us for the 2021-2022 school year!

How does changing Schools affect a child ?

During the course of their academic lives, children have to change school for a variety of reasons. For example parents may change jobs or separate and as a result their children have to change schools. Sometimes the changes may occur due to personal choices (e.g. search for a better quality of life) or social reasons (e.g. change in financial situation). Census data suggests that up to 18% of American school age children change homes in any given year. Most children will transfer to a new school or district at least once before they graduate from high school.

Although the reasons may be valid, changing schools must be handled with extreme caution since changes can have negative consequences on your child.

Academic changes and challenges

The curriculum can vary within a grade from one school district to the next. Teachers may adjust their pace to fit a particular class. When a new child arrives they may be ahead or behind the new class. Teachers also have different styles of teaching and new students may have to take time to adapt. In the 1990’s a study by the American Medical Association, involving ten thousand students found out that children who move frequently are 35 % more likely to fail a grade. It can also put a child academically behind by up to six months. The statistics further show that changing high schools puts students at a higher risk of in fact dropping out.

Peer Relationships

Interaction with their peers is extremely important to children .They may leave a school where they know most of their classmates and move to a new school where they have to begin allover to establish new friendships. This can be quite traumatic for a child.

Relationship between School /Parents and Child

An important part of the success of a school is that there is usually a strong collaboration and working relationship between schools and parents. This takes time to build. This makes it difficult and challenging for all parties to begin building a strong relationship. It can also take a while for records from the previous school to arrive.

Disruption to a class

A new student can have an effect on the class dynamics. It is not only that new students have to adjust, it’s the fact that their new classmates have to as well. In addition a teacher normally has to take time out from normal schedules to assess and assimilate new children.

Increases the risk of Psychotic Symptoms

Recent research has found that children who had changed schools three or four times in their childhood were found to be at least 60 % more likely to display at least one psychotic symptom. Studies have also shown that changing schools can often lead to feelings of low self-esteem.

Sometimes it is unavoidable that a child must change schools. If this is the case then everything must be done to make the transition as smooth as possible.Whatever the reason for changing school, working closely and positively with your child and their new school will be in their best interest.

Some tips on helping your child through the challenges of changing schools:

Keep in touch with your kid's best friends from the former school through phone or occasional vacation meetups
Teach your child social skills that will help them easily make new friends and connect with new classmates.
Identify areas where your child could potentially fall behind and assist them in those areas.
Constantly check your child's progress and get updates from the school on their current situation.

How changing schools affects a child

January 22, 2019

Modern realities are such that schoolchildren change an average of 2 schools in 11 years of study. This trend is associated with many social factors, but there are also parents who believe that changing schools is useful, and specifically transfer their child from one educational institution to another. Does a child really lack one school for harmonious development? Let's figure it out.

Photo: Smart Smart

Adapting to school is an extremely difficult process for a child of any age. A first-grader is experiencing stress associated with a change in the social situation, moreover, at the age of 7, another age crisis occurs. All this falls on the child like a snowball, and causes some behavioral reactions. Usually the attention of school psychologists is riveted to the first grade, who try to help teachers make the adaptation of kids as less painful as possible. But first-graders do not need to join a new, established team, they need to create this team on their own.

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But the rest of the guys who for some reason changed schools will have to join a new group. But each team has its own rules, its own leaders, the school class is a living organism that does not always welcome new members. One of the worst consequences of transferring a child from one school to another is school bullying, that is, bullying. Children and teenagers are sometimes very cruel and inventive in trying to test the newcomer for strength. School bullying is a type of psychological abuse, it can be both moral and physical, and I think it's not worth talking about how detrimental it can be to a child's psyche.

However, a change of school helps a child develop communication skills, allows him to see the diversity of teams, teaches him to adapt to new rules or, conversely, to build his own. Of course, a transfer to a new school is necessary for those children who, for some reason, cannot continue their education in the previous one - unprofessional teachers, lack of contact with classmates, perhaps the family has changed their place of residence and it has become inconvenient or impossible to go to the old school. In this case, you need:

Prepare the child for the change of school, tell him in advance that he will soon be studying elsewhere. It is desirable to say the exact dates.

If possible, go on a tour to the new school, show the building, introduce the future class teacher, psychologist, possibly classmates.

Be honest about the reasons why you decided to change schools. This is important so that the child does not have misunderstandings that can cause fear or guilt: “If I was transferred, then something is wrong with me. ”

Be attentive to the child's feelings, respect his emotions and desires. If the child does not want to transfer to another school, but for objective reasons it is necessary, you can agree that he, for example, will attend excursions with old classmates.

I do not recommend transferring a child to another school during a tumultuous age crisis. Firstly, it can cause serious resistance and, accordingly, greatly affect the parent-child relationship. Secondly, in a crisis, a child is already in constant stress due to changes within himself, if we add an external stressful situation to this, then the child’s internal resources may not be enough.

Transfer to another school is obligatory if the child does not develop relations with the team so much that he does not want to go to school, cries, somatic manifestations of chronic stress appear. The same applies to relations with the teaching staff - the personality of the teacher is extremely important in the learning process, therefore, in case of serious conflicts with teachers, it is better to change the school. Teacher bullying is just as dangerous as peer bullying.

When changing schools, it is important to take into account the age characteristics of the child. If you are transferring a younger student, then his leading activity is educational. It is important to pay attention to this area of activity, to analyze how well the educational process is organized in the new school, whether the child will be comfortable studying there, what kind of teachers are there - attentive, interested in learning or burnt out, tired of children and their profession. For the harmonious development of a younger student, self-realization is important precisely in the learning process.

If you're changing schools for a teenager, it's a different story. The leading activity of a teenager is intimate-personal communication with peers. A teenager can develop harmoniously only when he has friends and the opportunity to communicate with peers. In such a situation, there are 2 pitfalls:

If a teenager has a good relationship with classmates in the old school, then the change of educational institution can be very painful. In this case, it is better to avoid changing schools altogether, but if this is not possible, you need to be as careful as possible, help the child maintain relations with classmates - perhaps agree that you will take him to visit them (if the school is far away and he himself cannot get to them), maybe you will agree that sometimes one of his friends comes to you and stays overnight. The sphere of relationships is the main area for a teenager, it is important for parents to respect this and be very correct.

Parents can help their child build relationships with new classmates. For this, it is important that the parents and the child have a trusting relationship, in this case the teenager will be able to share his experiences, and the parents will be able to support. You can also invite a teenager to invite his new classmates to visit, thereby making it clear that you are on his side and support his desire to improve relations in a new team.

In general, changing schools is a major stress for a child of any age. If it is possible to avoid such a situation, then it is better to do it. A child can develop his communication skills, find new friends and new views both in additional education (sports, circles, sections, courses), and just in the yard on the playground. Therefore, answering the question “How many schools does a child need to change?”, I can say that, ideally, none. If transfer to another educational institution cannot be avoided, then parents should be as attentive as possible to the child, monitor changes in his behavior and, if necessary, seek help from a qualified psychologist.

The message How changing schools affect a child first appeared on Umnaya.

Education,

Socialization and attitude to mistakes: how a change of school affects a child

Sometimes, after moving, a child is ready to go to the other end of the city - just not to leave school, not to leave friends. A change of school can teach you how to cope with circumstances or, conversely, turn school life into stress. Psychologist Alexander Zagonov tells how a change of school affects a child.

Increasingly, among the participants of trainings and in individual counseling, I meet guys who have changed schools more than once. Sometimes this is a forced measure - due to moving, divorce of parents, sometimes - because of the poor performance of teachers or a bad psychological climate in the classroom. It happens that parents are looking for a suitable place of study, in which there will be more chances for the successful self-realization of the child or will take into account his individual characteristics.

In any case, the transition to a new school (especially if the child has changed it several times) will affect personal development.

Complicated socialization

School allows you to learn social values and psychological attitudes, gives you knowledge about how to live in society. This process is called socialization. In order for the child to successfully cope with this task, he needs a relatively stable and stable peer group. Then the process becomes consistent and natural.

Before adolescence, a child learns to conform to society.
Then, on the contrary, he searches for himself, tries to determine his uniqueness, peculiarity.
And finally, at the third stage, he combines this contradictory experience and finds his place in society, taking into account his personal characteristics.

If a child abruptly changes his social group, he may get stuck in one of the intermediate states. If he changed schools in the primary grades, especially in the first grade, he may encounter difficulties in mastering the norms of behavior, in establishing contact with others, and also in self-regulation.

If the transition occurred in higher grades, a teenager may have problems with self-identification, independence and taking responsibility for their actions and decisions.

Reduced sensitivity to external evaluation

A child who has changed schools several times gains the experience: "The rules of the game are always relative and conditional. " Of course, all schools have some general universal requirements, but most of the rules differ significantly in different schools. And the significance of different criteria by which students are evaluated is definitely different.

One school encourages "good behavior": calmness, passivity, obedience. In another, initiative and originality are considered more important qualities. Somewhere the emphasis is on perseverance and diligence, and somewhere on the disclosure of talents and abilities. It turns out that when moving from school to school, the child loses the sense of stability of the coordinate system, according to which he is either good or bad.

He has three paths

Do not attach much importance to external evaluation.
Develop your internal stable system of principles and focus more on it.
Develop the flexibility of thinking and learn to quickly navigate the changing rules of the game, adjusting your behavior to them.

In this perspective, the experience of changing school can play into the hands, become a kind of incentive for development. But, on the contrary, it can slow down and complicate his personal growth. It depends on the degree of readiness of the child for changes and trials associated with them, on how much stress this is for him.

Devaluation of close relationships

Specific experience also affects the strategy of building relationships between the child and peers. Often this is expressed in the fact that he, in principle, ceases to strive for trusting communication. The fact is that for the emergence of trust between people, they need to make a lot of efforts - both internal, mental, and external actions directed towards another. And if people suddenly break up, especially for reasons beyond their control, this can be a shock, and a protective mechanism is triggered.

Sometimes protective behavior is expressed in detachment, emphasized alertness, the child seems to isolate himself, fences off and does not make contact. Sometimes he chooses a defensive strategy that seems to be the opposite. The child is overly sociable, loves everyone, gets close to everyone very quickly and begins to make friends. But at the same time, he remains at the level of very superficial communication and rather plays in a trusting relationship than really opens up to people.

Desire to avoid failure and difficulty

If the transition from school to school was initiated by parents due to some difficulties in learning or communication, then for the child this can become a behavior model: "If it's difficult, leave." An exit strategy can be quite effective and in certain cases the most appropriate, but this is only one of the possible lines of behavior. The danger lies in the fact that it can become for a child a universal answer to any failure. Then he will more often give in to challenges in which he could grow. In addition, this strategy goes well with the role of "rescuer", and if this is a close position for the parent, then they begin to play along with each other.