DSS 2 (15 years old, year 10) is having a very hard time in school and recommendation from both his after school tutor and therapist is to consider sending him boarding. Key question is which school? He needs a combination of a very supportive but also very structured environment, somewhere that has excellent pastoral care.
School problems seem to be a mix of things. He's not done particularly well for some time now, but his grades have been getting worse, and are currently at a level where he will not be invited back for 6th form. He then seems to get a very, very negative message when he's at his mother's house (6 days a week vs. 1 with us); for example she has a long history of telling him he's stupid and lazy (one of the reasons we started sending him to a therapist and tutor in the first place), and has now started saying that his recent poor mock exam results are entirely due to laziness on his part. As a result, he's stopped doing any work (homework or revision) entirely, and is also showing signs of anxiety. The tutor is worried that he seems to be entirely defeated and totally disengaged. His older brother boarded and absolutely thrived, so he has seen the benefits and has been making some positive comments about boarding.
DSS1 went to Marlborough, but for various reasons I'm convinced that would not be the right environment for DSS2. One of the most serious was a bullying issue that the school was very late to address, and only did so under pressure from DH. Also, DSS2 is much more sensitive than DSS1, hence needing a very supportive environment with more structure than seems to be provided at Marlborough.
Any thoughts/advice on boarding schools with excellent pastoral care greatly appreciated.
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Help needed - DSS struggling in school. Boarding school choices?
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ilovebrownies · 20/06/2016 17:34
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