It is early October. Your child is in Year 1 or Year 2 of high school, lessons started only a few weeks ago and something is not right: they come home flat, they say it “is not for them”, or they say nothing and shut themselves in their room. If you are wondering whether they chose the wrong school track (Italian indirizzo, such as a liceo or a technical school), this is the right moment to ask yourself the question calmly, because the deadline that matters is far off, but not as far off as it seems.
There is just one fact to keep in mind. In the first two years of high school you can change track by 31 January without supplementary exams (DL 127/2025, converted by L. 164/2025). From the third year on, you need a supplementary exam (esame integrativo). I will not go into other legal details: procedures, forms and places available depend on the destination school, so ask that school’s office and check on the Ministry of Education’s website.
October and November serve one purpose only: understanding. In December you decide, in January you act without rushing. Anyone who reaches mid-January with the question still open finds themselves choosing within a few days, and choices made like that are almost always gut decisions.
This article is different from the one I wrote for the last year of middle school (how to choose a high school: open days and calendar): there you choose in the dark, here you already have a child who has tried the school for a few weeks and has real data.
First question: is it the track or the study method?
They are two different problems and they are cured in different ways. Changing school because of a study-method problem takes the problem to the new school. Insisting on the wrong track because “you have to hold out” costs a year of pointless effort. Here are the signs I use to tell them apart.
Track subjects and core subjects
Look at where the grades are and, above all, where the struggle lies. If the difficulties are spread evenly across everything (Italian, maths, languages, track subjects), the problem is more likely the study method, organisation, or the jump from middle school, which is abrupt for many.
If instead they do badly almost only in the subjects that define the track, and well or reasonably in the others, the signal changes. A boy at a liceo scientifico (science-track high school) who does well in Italian and history but gets stuck on everything to do with maths and physics has a different picture from one who struggles everywhere. In the same way, a boy at a technical school who finds the technical subjects boring but comes alive in the lab hours is saying something precise.
Beware of a frequent mistake: hard maths is not, by itself, a reason to change track. Many difficulties in maths in the first two years come from gaps left over from middle school or from a method that no longer holds up, and they can be solved. The right question is not “is he doing badly in maths?”, but “is he doing badly in maths even when it is explained calmly and he does the exercises with someone next to him?”.
Interest and difficulty are not the same thing
A subject can be difficult and interesting: the boy complains, but talks about it at dinner, looks things up on his own, asks questions. Another can be easy and empty: he gets a seven without effort and does not care at all. The real problem shows when interest is missing for the whole course, not for a single subject.
Try asking him, without turning it into an interrogation:
- which hour of the week he looks forward to and which one weighs on him;
- whether, among the track subjects, there is one he would like to do more of;
- what he imagines doing in five years, even only vaguely, and whether the current track seems to him a road towards that idea.
Vague answers are normal at fourteen or fifteen. What you are looking for is the direction, not a life plan.
What is not a sign
Some things look like signs and are not, at least on their own:
- a bad test or a failing grade early in the year (I talked about it in first failing grade in October: what to do as a parent);
- a teacher he does not like;
- the fact that his friends from middle school are at another school;
- the feeling, in class, of not understanding “how you study here”.
All four often pass within the first term. The real sign is the same difficulty staying, unchanged, even after you have changed something.
The three-week trial
Before deciding to change, I always propose an experiment: three weeks of targeted work with outside help, before making any decision. It can be a tutor, a teacher who is a family friend, a classmate who is further ahead, a catch-up course at the school. The aim is not to make up everything, but to gather information.
How to set it up:
- Choose one or two subjects where the difficulty is strongest, not all of them.
- Fix a regular appointment, for example twice a week, with a small goal for each session.
- Watch the reaction, not the grade. After three weeks the grade may not have moved, but the attitude has.
At the end of the trial there are two typical scenarios. In the first, the boy, with someone accompanying him, starts to understand, relaxes, asks questions: the problem was the method or a gap, and the track is fine. In the second, he understands the individual things but keeps saying he is not interested and experiences the subject as something forced on him: here the issue is the track.
There is also a third scenario, the in-between one: he understands, but likes nothing of what he does. In that case the question becomes which track would leave him more room for what he likes, and it is time to look at the alternatives carefully.
If the subject in question is maths, you can see how I work on the basics on the maths page. An introductory call serves exactly this purpose: to tell you honestly whether the difficulty is a gap that can be filled or something else.
What to ask the destination school
If after the three weeks the idea of changing is still standing, the next step is to talk to the school where you would like to go. I only suggest the questions to bring, because the practical rules come from whoever manages enrolments.
To the school office or the guidance contact:
- whether there is a procedure for moving to that track and what the timings are, remembering that the reference for the first two years is 31 January;
- whether there are places available in the year your child is attending (I do not take it for granted: it has to be asked);
- which subjects of the new track are not present in the current one, and what that means for a boy who joins “midstream”.
To teachers or to a student of that school, if you manage to speak to them:
- what a typical week looks like and how much study at home it takes;
- what pupils who arrive from outside find hardest;
- how newcomers are welcomed in the middle of the year.
On the Ministry’s website you will find the general picture and the up-to-date references: before deciding check there, do not trust what you remember or what another family says. The rules have changed recently, and interpretations circulate faster than official circulars.
A practical tip on how to ask the question: bring a concrete case, not a complaint. “Our son is in Year 1 at school X, he does well in Italian and history, he struggles in all the track subjects: how do you think about cases like this?” gets a useful answer. “We would like to change school” gets a form.
What to say to your child
The boy must feel part of the decision, not its recipient. A change imposed from outside, even if right, is experienced as being held back a year. A change that comes from a conversation in which he had his say is a choice, and people commit to their choices.
Some sentences that work, in my experience:
- “We are not deciding whether you have failed, we are deciding whether this is the right school for you.”
- “Three weeks of trial, then we talk about it with the data in front of us.”
- “If changing seems like a good idea to you, tell me even if you think it will disappoint us.”
One sentence to avoid: “Your cousin / X’s son is doing really well there.” Comparisons make the situation worse without giving any information.
How not to be in a rush by mid-January
The real risk is not making the wrong choice, but making it at the last minute. A simple calendar, to adapt, keeps everything under control.
- October: observe, talk to your child, go to the first parent-teacher meetings. If you are unsure how to prepare for them, there is a twin article, parent-teacher meetings: what to ask as a parent. Ask the teachers what they see: whether the difficulty is in one subject or in all of them, whether it is a problem of study or of attention.
- November: start the three-week trial on the problem subjects. If the school has an open day or a desk for incoming guidance, arrange a visit to the destination school.
- Late November / early December: look together at what has happened. If the trial worked, stay where you are and consolidate. If not, contact the destination school’s office.
- December: in many schools the first-term assessments arrive. A failing grade at the end of the term is not in itself a reason to change, but it helps to judge how much room there is to catch up (when needed, how many failing grades lead to being held back is a reference point worth knowing, because it removes the panic).
- First half of January: if the decision is made, start the procedure with the destination school, without waiting for the last days.
The rule I give parents is not to leave anything to the last ten days. If in January you still have to work out whether to change, you have lost the advantage of having watched calmly.
If in the end you stay where you are
This too is a good conclusion, and it happens often. After the three weeks the boy has a less approximate method, the teachers know there is an attentive family, and the current school looks less hostile than it seemed in October. Staying after really considering the alternative is different from staying out of inertia: the boy can feel it.
If instead you change, the first two years are when it costs least, and without supplementary exams: that is the reason the January deadline must be respected.
In both cases, if you want an opinion on what is happening in maths or the science subjects, write to me from the contact page: the free 30-minute introductory call is meant precisely to tell you, plainly, whether the problem can be solved with a bit of targeted work or whether it is better to look elsewhere.
