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Child now not loving school!

Child now not loving school!

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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 8:21 am
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Default Child now not loving school!

When my 7 year old daughter first attended the local public school she absolutely loved it for the first few weeks. I think this was largely due to the attention she got from other kids and the change in curriculum to what she was used to. She has the opportunity to go swimming, surfing and other fun sporty things that she was not used to doing in the UK. Recently however, we have noticed that her confidence has gone. She also now talks about playing by herself at playtimes. Is this normal i.e to be accepted by other children and then left to one side as they return to previous friendhips?
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 8:45 am
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 9:14 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by jasonK944
Recently however, we have noticed that her confidence has gone. She also now talks about playing by herself at playtimes. Is this normal i.e to be accepted by other children and then left to one side as they return to previous friendhips?
These are two symtoms of being bullied or teased. Schools are quick to say that they don't have a bullying problem but that's just niave. Hopefully, she's just realised that she's there for the rest of her life and she might just be a bit homesick. If it's bullying, nip it in the bud now!

Good luck,

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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 9:23 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by jasonK944
When my 7 year old daughter first attended the local public school she absolutely loved it for the first few weeks. I think this was largely due to the attention she got from other kids and the change in curriculum to what she was used to. She has the opportunity to go swimming, surfing and other fun sporty things that she was not used to doing in the UK. Recently however, we have noticed that her confidence has gone. She also now talks about playing by herself at playtimes. Is this normal i.e to be accepted by other children and then left to one side as they return to previous friendhips?
Sorry to hear things have gone a bit flat - yes this did happen to my daughter, centre of attention and then the glow wears off. My daughter was nine at the time and qite a few of the girls and boys had made close friends already and mothers organised into groups as well. My daughter went to after school club a few days of week so she wasn't just relying on the kids in her specific class. Also she joined a couple of after school activities to meet others. Brownies/Guides/Cubs are also ways of meeting other children and with organised activities there is less time for playing alone. It might also be worth having a quick word with the teacher to check it isn't anything else - my daughter wears hearing aids and she did get a little bored having to keep telling people about them so I think she came across as a little rude at times, she was used to her aids being normal in her previous school so was a bit resentful of certain changes.

I hope things get better soon, two years on Briony is loving school, she does not have as wide a circle of friends as she did in the UK but numbers are not what counts.

Cheers
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 9:31 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by jasonK944
When my 7 year old daughter first attended the local public school she absolutely loved it for the first few weeks. I think this was largely due to the attention she got from other kids and the change in curriculum to what she was used to. She has the opportunity to go swimming, surfing and other fun sporty things that she was not used to doing in the UK. Recently however, we have noticed that her confidence has gone. She also now talks about playing by herself at playtimes. Is this normal i.e to be accepted by other children and then left to one side as they return to previous friendhips?
Hi Jason.We had to move our daughters school when we sold our house and moved into rented last October(sold house because of plans to move to Oz).She was 4 1/2 and moved house/school and school hours all in the same week(mornings onto full days)so it was very traumatic.
She's always made friends easily and after about 3 weeks settled and was the centre of attention every morning when we turned up on the playground etc.
Then ,like your daughter,she started coming home saying "so-and-so wasn't my friend today" and that she'd ate her lunch/played at breaktime etc on her own.
I was devastated and was tortured by images of her standing alone and wailing while everyone else had a marvellous time! .
One way or another though I ended up talking to her teacher and the lunchtime superviser and she wasn't sitting alone /playing on her own at all!!They said there were short periods of time when she was "between games/friends"at playtimes and that was obviously what she was remembering when she got home,as even a few minutes can feel like an age to young children.Have since talked to another mother about this and her child did the same.
Unfortunately we only get the situation relayed to us through our children and their perseption of the situation can be different to the actual reality.
I also think that when you're new you get loads of attention and then when things go back to "normal" comparatively speaking you feel like no-ones taking any notice of you-do you know what I mean?A bit like the way you feel after Christmas when everythings been magical/presents etc etc and then afterwrads life feels boring,but it's only boring in comparison to the attention and gifts and so on you were getting while it was Christmas.
The children probably aren't ignoring her but the novelty is probably wearing off and normality is setting in,so they're not giving her the same amount of attention and it's like the end of the honeymoon period,as it were.
I don't profess to be an expert on this but we have gone through it recently and dealt with it by seeing the relevent teachers/supervisers without our daughter knowing(didn't want to encourage attention seeking behaviour ie:she says she doesn't want to go to school cos she's got no friends)and got ourselves some peace of mind,whilst playing it down at home.The teachers were excellent and although they didn't see it being a problem they did a few sharing/making friends sessions in class.
Have you been to see your daughters teachers?Just on the off-chance that there is a problem?
If you need some moral support pm me but otherwise hope this helps a little.
Mrs.Neal
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 11:20 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by jasonK944
When my 7 year old daughter first attended the local public school she absolutely loved it for the first few weeks. I think this was largely due to the attention she got from other kids and the change in curriculum to what she was used to. She has the opportunity to go swimming, surfing and other fun sporty things that she was not used to doing in the UK. Recently however, we have noticed that her confidence has gone. She also now talks about playing by herself at playtimes. Is this normal i.e to be accepted by other children and then left to one side as they return to previous friendhips?

This sounds exactly the same as our daughters experience here. The first school she attended when we first arrived was really good, she was happy and had lots of friends. They went swimming in her first few weeks etc etc.
Then we moved house so she had to go to another school, the parents seemed less friendly and our daughter said she felt she had no special friends like the other school.

Although she isn't alone as lunch times and plays she still doesn't have that special bond with another child her age.

She is ecstatic at our move back to the UK where she can be back with all her old friends
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 11:49 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by janeyray
This sounds exactly the same as our daughters experience here. The first school she attended when we first arrived was really good, she was happy and had lots of friends. They went swimming in her first few weeks etc etc.
Then we moved house so she had to go to another school, the parents seemed less friendly and our daughter said she felt she had no special friends like the other school.

Although she isn't alone as lunch times and plays she still doesn't have that special bond with another child her age.

She is ecstatic at our move back to the UK where she can be back with all her old friends
Hope she won't be too disappointed. I know what it is like to be the centre of attention for a couple of weeks in a new school in a different country and then to go back to the old UK school and be the centre of attention yet again for a couple of weeks. Your daughter may find it hard to re-adjust, she has had an experience her old friends have not. She may even wish she was back in OZ, especially at difficult times. I am sure she will get used to being back in the UK eventually, but I would not be surprised if she goes back one day for a "holiday".
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Old Mar 2nd 2004, 11:59 am
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Default Re: Child now not loving school!

Originally posted by Servant24kids
Hope she won't be too disappointed.

Your daughter may find it hard to re-adjust, she has had an experience her old friends have not. She may even wish she was back in OZ, especially at difficult times. I am sure she will get used to being back in the UK eventually, but I would not be surprised if she goes back one day for a "holiday".
I don't think she'll be to disappointed, she's only 6 years old!!


I'am sure she won't find it hard to re-adjust, we've only been gone just over a year. There's no bigger adjustment than coming here.

At such a young age she won't be re -visiting Australia for a long time, maybe she'll revisit when she's older who knows?
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