It does not stop parents asking, usually late at night, are we doing this to them or for them? So here is what the research actually shows about the impact of moving school — when it matters, when it doesn't, and what settling in looks like — so the decision about timing can be made with the evidence rather than the worry.
The short version
- Primary age: children who change school do about as well by eleven as those who don't, once where they started and their circumstances are allowed for.
- Secondary age: a move is associated with lower results at sixteen even after those allowances — and the closer to the examinations, the more it matters.
- Settling in has two measurable parts: being involved in school life and feeling you belong. Most worries ease in the first term; friendships take longest.
- Parents are good judges of what their own child will find hard.
Primary: the move itself is not the problem
Steve Strand and Feyisa Demie followed children in an inner-London borough from the age-7 tests to the age-11 tests. Children who had moved school scored lower at eleven on the face of it, but once prior attainment and background were taken into account the difference largely disappeared: the children who moved were, on average, already behind, and the move added little. For a family with a child aged five to ten, this is the most useful single finding in the literature. Choose the timing for the family's reasons; a January or April start is not a problem the data recognises.
Secondary: timing is the thing to plan
The same researchers looked at ages eleven to sixteen and the picture changed: pupils who moved in those years had lower examination results at sixteen even after adjusting for attainment at eleven and background. The likeliest reason is structural. By fourteen, pupils have chosen subjects and started two-year courses, so a move is a change of courses, sometimes of examination board, part-way through. A move at eleven — the natural break into secondary school, which in England carries an application deadline — is a different thing from a move at fifteen. From fourteen, the question is which side of the courses the move falls.
What settling in looks like
The largest UK study of the move into secondary school — the School Transition and Adjustment Research Study at University College London, around two thousand children — found a successful transition had two components: being involved in school, academically and in behaviour, and feeling a sense of belonging. Both, not one. Most children's worries eased once they had started; worries about friendships, discipline and homework took longer, and friendship groups changed a great deal — so a child who is quiet about friends in week three is doing what most children do. No single group of children was especially vulnerable. And parents had a good sense of the help their own child would need.
What to take from it
Involvement and belonging are what to watch for in the first term, and both are things a family can help with: a club joined in week one, a parent at the gate, the school told what the child is good at before anyone has had a chance to find out. Friendships take longest; expect that. For a child in the primary years, the research gives you freedom over timing. For a child in the examination years, it gives you one thing to plan around. And for every child, the widening of the world that comes with a move is the part no study measures and every parent who has done it recognises.
How Moovedin can help
The free scorecard tells you in four minutes how complicated the move looks for your family, children included. The Blueprint works out each child's year group and application route and puts the school and the tenancy in the right order. For an examined year group, or a child you are worried about, the Schools Specialist call is forty-five minutes with me about that child.
Frequently asked questions
What is the impact of moving school on children?
In primary, little or none once background is allowed for; in secondary, an association with lower results at sixteen, strongest near the examinations. The Blueprint places each child's move against those ages so the timing is a decision, not an accident.
How long does it take a child to settle in a new school?
Most worries ease within the first term; friendships take longest. Researchers measure settling in as involvement plus belonging. The schools section of the Blueprint tells you what to ask the school for in the first weeks.
Is it better to move during the school year or at the start?
For primary-age children the evidence does not single out September. For secondary, the start of Year 7 is the natural break; for examination years, the courses matter more than the month. The Schools Specialist call is for exactly this question about a particular child.
Sources
- Strand, S. and Demie, F. (2006), Pupil mobility, attainment and progress in primary school, British Educational Research Journal, 32(4).
- Strand, S. and Demie, F. (2007), Pupil mobility, attainment and progress at secondary school, Educational Studies, 33(3), 313–331.
- Rice, F., Frederickson, N., Shelton, K., McManus, C., Riglin, L. and Ng-Knight, T. (2015), Identifying factors that predict successful and difficult transitions to secondary school (STARS), University College London / Nuffield Foundation.
Both Strand and Demie studies are of one inner-London borough; findings are associations after statistical adjustment, not causes. The opening paragraph is the author's experience, not a research claim.
This article is general guidance only. It summarises published research on moving school; it is not an assessment of your child. For a particular child, speak to the school and, where it helps, to us.
If the timing of a move is the thing you are turning over at night, the free scorecard shows how complicated it looks for your family, children included.