My eldest hasn't had a bad middle school experience. She skipped 5th grade and started 6th (at a 6th-8th middle school) the year before last. So, she was just a bit shy of 10 when she started and rather small. She's been on a huge growth spurt and is now a bit over 5' tall, though, so she no longer stands out in terms of size.
She has done better both socially and academically (in terms of learning something) than she did in elementary. B/c it is a very large school with around 900 kids, her class has nearly 300 kids in it. That has made for the opportunity to have accelerated math and literacy classes which have a few kids who are actually quite bright and good peers for her. Of course, there are still the higher than avg achieving, but not unusually bright & pushed kids in her classes.
She's gotten involved in drama/musical theatre at school, which she has really, really enjoyed and that has been a nice group of kids for her to hang out with as well. She is a very centered child who doesn't tend to cave to peer pressure or care terribly about what others think and I do believe that has helped her navigate the middle school waters.
