Darn, if your child's primary school was relocating and was going to be completely different, would you just move them to a better school or stick with the unknown?

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

Hi, It's fluffybunny.

Ds is in year 6 and has not had the best luck in schools, he was badly bullied in the last one and moved to the current one in September. It's not perfect but he's happy, he's behaving well (asks alot of questions though that flusters his teacher) I don't know where he is academically, he's very bright anyway but his teacher doesn't give much away. Homework is practically non-existant. He has friends, his caring side has really come out and he's showing what a lovely child he is. The plan was to leave him there with his friends until he was 13 (they only took children until this age), then for him to move for his GCSE's. He's moved about a bit due to a variety of reasons and I thought that when he moved here then this would be it until 13, giving him the chance to settle and make friends.

They announced a few weeks ago that they wanted to expand the school very drastically and move to a larger building to accomodate this. They are changing the name and having a complete staff/curriculum overhaul so in effect, it's going to be a very different school. As a result, alot (10/14) of ds's friends are now leaving.
I really don't know what to do now, he's really sad at having to move again and he's blaming himself, that he's cursed. If we stick with the current school then it will be like him moving again. There was a school that we applied to prior to this who turned him down, saying he should stay at the school where he was being badly bullied for "stability". I couldn't leave him here, he meets some children from here on the way home and he hides behind me and squeezes my hand so he's still afraid. The school which didn't offer him a place is fantastic and would meet his needs really well, far better then his current school, but it's further from home, there is a different head for the secondary school. I really don't want him to move again but I really have no choice and don't know what to do for the best.
Any advice is really welcome. Many thanks

[lou031205]

Where are his friends moving to & why?

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

I don't know, one's gone to Jersey, one's been pulled out as he's being bullied and the school are doing naff all (she's reported the current school to social services as they have documented none of the bullying incidents that have taken place over the past 4 years as "father god takes care of all this" (apparantly, according to the mum), some are going to the catholic school.

It's a mess! I wish I was making it all up, it's beyond a joke.

Thankyou for answering.

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

I must have really pissed someone off in my past life to get all this crap.

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

There's 2 different heads, the fool is the head of the junior school, ds moves to the senior school in September. It's a top school, one of the best in the East Midlands, has a really good reputation here.

The reference that the school sent about ds was the problem, the head took a dislike to ds, he was being bullied, she refused to admit it, ("we have children from good families here") accused ds of swearing like there's no tomorrow. I've never heard him, he's never said swear words in the current school, he's a responsible boy. He moved there from a private school, she said herself that ds thought he was better then all of the school (ds is the most down to earth child, he makes friends easily as he's fun). All I got from the head where I wanted him to go to was to leave him where he was so they could get to know him Ds saw a therapist about the bullying, he wrote a letter supporting my decision to move him, the head wouldn't budge though and told me to apply to the senior school instead.

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

It will be in September but we need to apply again now to a new school if we move him.

I'm not happy about the attitude of the head, he's in the junior school though and not the senior school as there's a different head.