Four 11-year-old girls leave the familiarity of their prep schools to join one of the most prestigious girls' schools in the country, Cheltenham Ladies' College. For the three new boarders and one day girl, a new school is as daunting as it is exciting.

Bryony, Galen, Jessica and Ruairidh must leave their tiny primary schools on remote north-west Scotland islands to start secondary school together on the mainland at Mallaig High School. Each has a different journey into this new world, but they the share universal challenges of finding their own identities, making new friends and trying to belong.

Four London children make the transition from their familiar primary schools to the grown-up world of an inner-city secondary school. The two boys, Demian and Azad, are best friends from the start, while girls Semra and Katriye are twin sisters. Playground politics and rivalries come to affect all of them profoundly.