Making friends

Making friends

If you move to a new school you may be worried about leaving your old friends. Will you get on with your new class mates? Will you fit in? Don’t worry, because you’ll make new friends and can still keep your old ones too! As you go through life you’ll continue making new friends. Some of your friendships may last for life, while other friends will come and go.

Tips on making new friends:

Smile! People will want to get to know you if you look friendly.
Join clubs, both in and out of school, to get to know as many people as possible.
Go to events and talk to lots of people.

Falling out with friends

Friendships can go through good as well as bad times. Most people fall out with their friends at some stage, and this can be really upsetting, but most make up again soon after. Try talking to your friend and tell them how you feel. Perhaps they need a bit of time to calm down. If you’ve upset them be prepared to say sorry.

Peer pressure

It’s great being part of a group of friends, but sometimes this can make life difficult for you. It’s important that nobody pressures you into doing something you don’t want to do. Perhaps you feel pressured to:

Truant from school
Have a girlfriend or boyfriend
Wear certain clothes
Smoke, take drugs or drink alcohol.

Real friends won’t pressure you into doing something you don’t want to. They'll like you as you are.

If you feel friends are forcing you to do things you don’t want to, or want to talk to someone about falling out with a friend, ring Childline for free on 0800 11 11.