For many families and professionals working in international education, relocation is understood as a practical challenge - packing, visas, new routines, uniforms, timetables. What often goes unspoken until it’s happening is the invisible shift: the cognitive, emotional and academic load that follows a move.
I see this regularly - bright, capable students who arrive settled and confident, only to experience a noticeable dip in performance months later. It’s not always SEND. Sometimes, it’s the very act of change.
In this blog, I’m going to discuss the evidence and the lived reality of relocation impacts, with a view to helping families and educators understand the transitional impacts of moving schools.
Why relocation matters for learning
Moving schools, especially across national systems - isn’t simply changing buildings. It disrupts routines, social bearings and even cognitive load.
Research in educational psychology and mobility research consistently demonstrates that school mobility is associated with lower immediate achievement. A significant review of longitudinal data in the USA found that mobility predicts lower average academic achievement compared with peers who remain in the same setting, even after accounting for socioeconomic factors. Students who change schools often show poorer outcomes in core subjects in the medium term.
This does not mean the student is incapable. It means that change, even when voluntary…..requires significant adaptation.
The cognitive and emotional dimensions of transition
Learners do not leave their brains behind when they move. From the first day in a new classroom, they are juggling:
• navigating unfamiliar curriculum expectations
• decoding new linguistic demands, even when social language seems fluent (EAL learners)
• understanding different classroom cultures and unspoken norms
• adapting to assessment formats they haven’t encountered before
That’s cognitive load - multiple simultaneous processes competing for limited mental bandwidth. Cognitive Load Theory, first articulated by Sweller and colleagues, highlights how working memory has finite capacity and when it’s overtaxed, performance suffers. Educators use this theory to design instruction; families benefit from understanding it too.
Emotionally and socially, transition matters too. Stress associated with change ….. leaving friendships, adjusting to new expectations and environments, can quietly draw resources away from learning behaviours such as concentration, organisation and self-regulation.
Temporary adjustment vs persistent difficulty
One of the questions I’m asked most by parents is:
“Is this just settling in, or is there an underlying need?”
There is no universal cut-off, but there are patterns that suggest deeper exploration is appropriate:
• Performance decline across multiple subjects that does not improve over time
• Marked discrepancy between verbal understanding and written output
• Consistent executive challenges (organisation, task initiation) beyond the settling period
• Emotional withdrawal linked specifically to academic tasks
Some decline after moving is normal as schools and students align expectations. But persistent patterns, especially after two to three terms - justify a structured review.
What the evidence says about mobility impacts
Mobility research highlights that repeated school changes are associated with risks to achievement and behaviour outcomes. In the Chicago Longitudinal Study, students who experienced frequent school mobility were more likely to show poorer academic outcomes and increased behavioural challenges compared with peers who remained in one school.
Other studies, including longitudinal analyses, find that a single change can be associated with lower grades in key subjects - the effect size is often small but educationally meaningful.
These data do not mean relocation inevitably harms long-term attainment. Rather, they show that mobility is a factor worth monitoring, especially in international contexts where language, curriculum and culture may also be shifting simultaneously.
What schools and parents can do
What helps are structured responses, not panic.
For schools:
• Track performance over time, not just snapshots
• Provide executive functioning scaffolds (planners, routines)
• Support academic language development explicitly
• Communicate patterns with families clearly and early
For parents:
Ask questions that reveal patterns, not assumptions:
• What specific barriers are teachers observing?
• Has the child’s performance stabilised or continued to decline?
• What structured strategies have been tried?
• What will you look for in the next review cycle?
Reassessing too quickly can lead to over-diagnosis; waiting too long can delay necessary support. A balanced view is vital.
The bigger picture
There is no doubt that mobility creates complexity. Research demonstrates that school moves, particularly later in schooling, are associated with negative outcomes unless mitigated by support and context.
But mobility is also a global reality that many of us choose for work, family and opportunity. In the long run, students with positive experiences of adaptation often develop resilience, creativity and social intelligence that static contexts may not nurture.
The task for schools and families is not to eliminate disruption - it is to understand, monitor, and support the student through the transition cycle.
Ian Edwards
References
Herbers, J. et al. (2013). School Mobility and Developmental Outcomes in Young… Public Health Research.
Clark, Nguyen & Sweller (2005). Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design. Evidence from learning design research.
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