Smoothing the move to a new school

Your daughter’s new school is settled and soon she will be heading off for her first day. How can you help it go as smoothly as possible for her?

• Take any opportunities for her to visit the school. Most schools have some kind of induction day for new pupils. If not, ask if you can be shown round again-just a brief tour-to refresh your memories.

• Look out for public events at the school and go along. It’ll help your daughter feel part of the school and help to familiarise her with her new surroundings. If your daughter doesn’t know anyone else at school, ask the school to put you in touch with someone. It’ll be a useful contact for you as well as her.

• If the school is in a new area, drive past a few times. Get out a map and show her where the school is in relation to home and to other familiar places. If your daughter is going to be travelling independently or by school coach, do the journey there and back several times, showing her what to look out for just before she gets to school and as she leaves school at the end of the day.

• Talk to your daughter about how she’s feeling about the move. Be prepared for a mixture of emotions: sometimes excited, sometimes apprehensive. Talk with her about previous experiences of change-hers and yours-share your experiences of change and how you felt and reassure her that change is always a time of mixed emotions.

• Leave the school’s prospectus lying around along with any newsletters they’ve sent you so that she can quietly look through them whenever she wants to. Check the information that the school has given you about arrangements for the start of term and make sure your daughter knows what the school has planned for the first day and what she needs to take with her. If the school has asked for uniform and personal possessions to be named, make sure that’s done. They are likely to be checked in the first day or so and new girls hate to be seen as having failed to conform.

• Make sure your daughter knows how to contact you in an emergency. Programme your contact details into her mobile -and those of another friend or family member she can contact if you’re not available. If she doesn’t have a mobile, write the numbers on a piece of card and let her put that, and some money for an emergency phone call, in a safe place so she knows where to find it. (You’d be amazed how reassuring that’ll be.)

On the day… Make sure she gets to school in good time. Wish her good luck and smile-at least until you’re out of sight!