Changing Middle Schools During the School Year
Changing middle schools during the school year is a decision many families consider for different reasons: overcrowded classrooms, learning difficulties, complicated relationships with classmates, sporting commitments, or the desire to follow an educational path that better reflects their children’s interests and aspirations.
Behind every school transfer, there is a story. And often, it is the students themselves, through their observations, who help us understand what they are really looking for in a school.
I would like to share three experiences I have personally encountered at Holden Middle School. To protect the students’ privacy, I will use fictional names: Tommaso, Benedetta, and Isabela. Their stories, however, are real.
I remember my first meeting with Tommaso, who joined Holden during the school year. He had been attending a local school in a class of 23 students. He told me that following lessons had become difficult. Teachers, busy maintaining discipline, were not always able to stop and explain a topic again when he had not understood it. But it was one particular observation that struck me most: “If there were less disruption in the classroom, I would understand more and have much less homework to do at home.”
A simple observation that should give us adults something to think about.
The problem is not necessarily the number of students. A class of 23 students can work perfectly well. However, when managing the group takes up most of the time, there is a risk that less time will be available for explanations and individual learning. As a result, work that should be completed at school ends up being shifted to the home.
Smaller classes can encourage closer relationships with teachers and make it easier for them to step in when a student has not understood an explanation. Naturally, the way teaching is organised also matters.
But difficulties with schoolwork are not the only reason families decide to change schools.
An Istat survey covering 2023, published in June 2025, found that 23.7% of children aged 11 to 13 had experienced repeated episodes of bullying. Some 58% reported having been offended or insulted at least once during the year, while 42.3% had experienced at least one instance of exclusion.
These figures deserve our attention.
Not every conflict between classmates constitutes bullying, but when a student struggles to find their place within a group, communication between the family and the school becomes essential.
There are also situations in which a school transfer is prompted by the need to balance education with other important commitments.
This was the case with Benedetta, a student who joined Holden during the school year. Benedetta competes in alpine skiing at a high level, and during the winter she has to balance lessons, training sessions, and competitions. Although her previous school already had a support plan for student-athletes, according to what she told us, her needs were not being adequately taken into account. She sometimes had several oral exams scheduled on the same day or homework loads that were difficult to balance with her sporting commitments.
Benedetta was not asking to study less. She needed a schedule that would allow her to take both school and sport seriously. Personalising a student’s educational path does not mean lowering expectations, but organising their workload around their actual needs.
And then there is Isabela, a girl just over eleven years old, who impressed me with the determination she showed when she came to our first meeting.
Isabela already knew exactly what she wanted: she wanted to study Chinese.
She told me she was fascinated by East Asian culture and had a clear plan for her future. When she grew up, she would study East Asian languages at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and then move to Shanghai.
I asked her what she would do once she arrived in China. She could not answer. For the time being, her dream ended there, in Shanghai.
I remember that meeting with particular affection. Sitting in front of me was an eleven-year-old girl who had not yet decided what she would do as an adult, but knew perfectly well which path she wanted to begin following. And it was she who had strongly wished to transfer to Holden so that she could have the opportunity to study Chinese.
This, too, is a reason to change middle schools: not because something is wrong, but because a student has discovered something they are passionate about and wants to start exploring it.
When a student joins Holden during the school year, we try to understand the educational journey they have already undertaken, their expectations, and their needs. Working closely with the family and teachers allows us to identify any differences in the curriculum and support the student’s integration, both academically and in their relationships with their new classmates.
Before making a decision, I always advise families to visit the new school, meet the teachers, and, whenever possible, give their child the opportunity to spend a day in the classroom.
From a practical point of view, it is possible to change middle schools during the school year, and there is no single nationwide deadline set by the Ministry of Education for requesting the transfer of a student who is already enrolled.
The first step is to contact the chosen school to check whether a place is available in the appropriate year group. Once availability has been confirmed, the family can request a transfer authorisation from the previous school, indicating the new institution. The administrative offices will arrange for the transfer of the student’s school records, while a meeting with the new teachers will help ensure continuity in the curriculum and study methods.
But there is something to keep in mind: while it is true that the Ministry has not established a final deadline, common sense also has a role to play.
Transferring a student in May, when the school year is almost over, may not be the best choice. The new student would have to join a class that has already completed much of the curriculum, quickly adapt to different teachers and assessment methods, and face final tests in several subjects within just a few weeks.
For this reason, based on my experience, I believe that March, or April at the latest, is generally the period by which it would be advisable to complete a school transfer. This is not a legal deadline, but an educational guideline that gives students enough time to get to know their new classmates, settle into their new environment, and approach the end of the school year with greater peace of mind.
Of course, there may be exceptional circumstances, such as an unexpected family relocation, that require different solutions. But when a change can be planned in advance, I believe it is important to look beyond the administrative possibility of transferring and focus above all on what is best for the student.
The stories of Tommaso, Benedetta, and Isabela remind us that behind the decision to change schools are young people with very different needs, abilities, and dreams. Some want to be able to follow a lesson without constant interruptions, others want to balance their studies with a demanding sporting commitment, and others, at the age of eleven, have already decided that one day they will live in Shanghai.
And perhaps that is precisely our role as educators: to learn to listen to young people and help them find their own path towards becoming who they want to be.
Nicoletta Coppo
