I doubt that you know this already, but I have a recently moved schools. I was unhappy with the school that I was attending during my GCSE years and decided the best decision for me was to move schools for sixth form. In an attempt to be as helpful as possible, I thought it might be a good idea to share the story of this: my fears, my reasons, the successes and drawbacks of the whole ordeal and hopefully I'll be able to give some invaluable advice to those who may be in the same dilemma that I was in year 11.
Secondary School
From years 7 to 11, I was attending an all girl grammar school which, up until about year 9, was an environment that I flourished in. I was quite honestly, a nerdy student; I did all of the work and tried my best in order to get consistently high grades. As I went to a grammar school, the majority of people around me were high-flyers; they gained good grades and worked as equally hard as me to achieve their best, however as a result of this, school became a very competitive environment. With grades being fairly even between everyone in my year, there was a much more significant focus on your other skills and personality traits and as you can imagine with it being an all girl school, it became quite catty, (which is a nice way of phrasing it,) quite quickly. This was not at all an environment that I flourished in.
Reasons For Moving
Second to the unpleasant environment that developed in the later years of my time at the school, I found that the school had little respect or concern for the pupils that attended that school but instead solely focused on the grades we would achieve in our GCSE exams as it would therefore reflect well on the school. Resultantly, the school was unfocused on the wellbeing of the students or their learning experience. For example, I had a completely terrible time when it came to studying physics. I had 4 different physics teachers in year 11 alone. One thought our lessons was a time for joking around, another quit within 2 weeks of being in the school, one was a supply teacher who didn't teach physics at all and the other had recently moved from another country and didn't speak particularly fluent English, (he once called toes, the fingers of our feet!) which made it extremely hard learn and he also gave up very quickly, storming out of the classroom when our class failed to cooperate. Although I am aware of multiple pupils and parents, including myself, who complained about our teachers, absolutely nothing changed. Although I originally started off with an interest in physics, this quickly went downhill when it practically became a self-taught subject. Although I hope this isn't a reason for many others, it was a reason for my leaving.
Another reason I thought about leaving was the idea of change. I have never been one to shy away from change and new experiences and the thought of moving to another school appealed to me. I had been at the same school, surrounded by the same people, teachers and classrooms for 5 years and so I liked the idea starting fresh and trying out a new school which is why I was keen to move schools and meet new people.
The third and probably the most important reason for changing schools was the subjects I wished to study for A-level. The school I was attending was focused on academic subjects and didn't offer a particularly wide variety and unfortunately did not offer 2 of the subjects I most enjoyed at GCSE - English Language and ICT. If I were to take these subjects, I would have had to have travelled between three different schools in the local area which would not be particularly ideal. If I were to move to a different school however, I would be able to take all four of the subjects that I wanted, (maths, geography, English language and ICT) with minimal travel.
Reasons To Stay
To put it simply - my friends. I had a really close group of friends and we all got along so well! At first I couldn't bare the thought of leaving them behind but after long discussions and debates, half of us decided to move schools and go our separate ways anyway. I also felt as though I had forgotten how to make friends and didn't want to be a outsider. It had been 5 years since I had moved schools and I was 11 years old then so it would be much harder to make friends now. I thought I was going to be the outcast that nobody would want to be friends with when I could stick with my current group of friends if I didn't move: This wasn't the case at all.
Another reason I considered staying where I was is the familiarity of it all. If I stayed in the same place, I wouldn't ever get lost or have to make new friends or meet new teachers. Pretty much everything would have remained the same and I think this is one of the big reasons people fear moving - because of the change, when really that should be a benefit not a drawback. I found it completely refreshing to meet new people and work in a new environment.
Finally, I would be moving from a grammar to an ordinary school and although it sounds very snobby of me, it was genuinely one of my concerns. I feared that moving from a grammar school would mean I wasn't pushed as hard and that things may be run differently which could have meant that I don't reach my full potential. If I stayed on at the grammar school I would have had to take 5 A-levels and would be pushed to go to the top universities to study academic subjects such as maths or English. At an ordinary school, you have the option to do just 3 or 4 subjects and weren't pushed so forcefully to move on to University.
Benefits of Moving Schools
After taking the plunge and deciding to move schools for sixth form, I quickly realised all of the above shouldn't have bothered me.
I made friends extremely quickly and stayed in touch with my old ones too. I have made some extremely close friends in the past year and I adore every single one of them. I have also met some really lovely people and have really widened my social circle which I think has allowed me to blossom into a more confident and positive person. I also stayed in close contact with my old friends and we have remained really close - we meet up as much as we can and it makes you really appreciate the time you spend together. I will admit that I have also lost touch with friends but this has been for the best as I have better been able to see which of my friends were true and loyal friends and which were only temporary and for that I am grateful.
Moving from a grammar school to an ordinary public school has meant that I am under far less pressure. Instead of 5, I take 4 subjects and so I am still able to push myself but in a way that I am comfortable with. Having less subjects has meant that I have more time to focus on the ones that I study and in turn do better than I would had I have taken more. It also means that instead of being pushed to go to university, I have been positively encouraged and I am really looking forward to the prospect of.
Lastly, I think that I have genuinely moved to a much better school. The structure of the day is better, the teachers are nicer, and the lessons are more fun. This change of routine and habit has given me a refreshed enjoyment of learning which I think began to fade during my later years at secondary school. I honestly love going to school now and I am so happy that I made the decision to move schools for Sixth form.
Conclusion
While this is an account of my own personal experience, I understand that everyone is different and that your situation may differ from mine. I am quite lucky in that I have a large number of schools available to me in my local area and that I have a good set of friends. Despite this, I would definitely recommend moving schools to anyone and I think my friends who have also moved schools would say the same also. It is a great learning curve and has really helped build my confidence and has made me a more mature and happier individual.
I hope you've enjoyed this post and hope it gave you some valuable advice if your experiencing the tricky dilemma that is choosing sixth forms. If you have any advice you think may be useful for other people, please leave them in the comments below!
I hope you've had a great day, and if it's your birthday, happy birthday!
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