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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are also considering a move for our DD.  Definitely a significant amount of relational aggression in the grade and a divisional head who doesn’t want to deal with it.  The “popular” girls are interested in topics more advanced than they should be for their age, etc

Can PPs who made a move successfully share process insights?  The fear of the unknown is always hard.  (DD has an older sibling who is happy at the school but the class dynamics and parent group are much better.)

I’m comfortable scoping out and assessing the academic part, but what did you do to figure out social dynamics and administrative / counselor strengths, school culture, etc?

Thanks in advance![/quote]

We moved a son from his private elementary school to a different private because of the difficult social dynamics in the grade level.  It was the whole enchilada - the parents, the kids, some of the teachers, even the extra-curricular sports teams that were coached by dads - and it was probably the best thing we could have ever done.  We left his siblings, an older sister and two younger brothers, at the school because their classes and grade levels were great.

We knew about the other school by word of mouth from another family who had done the same thing we were looking to do.  Basically it was a leap of faith for us based on the words of these other parents and meeting the administration and teachers of the new school.  The grade level at the new school had a completely different vibe; the kids were HAPPY and we didn't see that at our son's grade level.  We felt like it was a huge risk at the time - what if he didn't like it, what if the new school was filled with mean people also, what if our son felt ostracized or excluded by his siblings who had a common experience.  Turns out he thrived and we would do it again in a heartbeat.

I don't know if we would have had the nerve to do it if we didn't know the other family.  I'm not sure how they got the courage to do it first for that matter.  I think that if we hadn't trusted the other family then rather than move only one kid we would have moved everyone, which would have been horrible because the other kids really liked their school.

It is a hard choice.  In the OP's case the solution seems pretty obvious.  In our son's case, he was getting by but he wasn't thriving and he wasn't waking up happy.  We wanted back the little guy who used to bounce out of his bed, happy and confident.  It took a year or two but he got his mojo back![/quote]

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