I would like some fresh perspectives on this. Some of the details are changed to avoid being recognised.
We live in Germany, in a small town where we have been the only English family for years. This last year, 3 English families moved to the area with older children, but all with one child the same as my eldest child. The parents made friends with each other, and made a point of ignoring me in the playground, and my dc said she was being ignored by the English children too.
At first it was embarrasing because there was no reason for it, it isn't the sort of thing that I have experienced in the past, and because people here are generally extremely polite and courteous, saying hello to everyone even if they are not good friends.
My dc and I ignored it and got on with our normal lives, my dc played with her friends and I chatted to the people I normally chatted to.
However, through the year, the English children have made a point of ganging up on dc whenever they could, making rude remarks whenever they saw her, making threats about violence on one occasion when my dc stood up for herself. The English children didn't get on with the local children at first but through the year that has improved and the English children have learned some of the language, and I thought that things would settle down as they felt more settled, but in the last few days of term they were just vile to dc, harassing her, asking her mocking questions, calling her names. She said she had no idea what to say to them, and that it was made worse because no one around her could understand what they were saying and so were just playing as usual. It was the same thing with the teachers, she tried to explain to them but they couldn't understand the words and didn't seem to get it. She said she was trying to just ignore, but it was difficult as it happens every time she walks past the English children, or says anything near them.
There is something which dc used to get teased about sometimes, it is a neurological thing, but because she has known the children for a long time she doesn't get teased about it often any more, she is sometimes quite popular, sometimes more introverted. But the English children have picked up on the thing she used to get teased about and in the last week taken it to a new level and this has really upset dc, especially as no one understands what is being said but her. She said if anyone else understood they would step in, as that is what normally happens when anyone is picked on.
The English children have been well looked after by the school, the school has paid for extra tuition to help them learn the local language and to catch up.
Because the worst of this happened right at the end of the year I didn't get a chance to talk to the teacher, and we are now waiting for the start of next year, but dc is now stressed about going back.
My dc thinks that the English families think that we think we are better than them, because of the some of the questions she is asked. If that is right it is not the case, we had settled lives before they came, that was all.
I really don't understand why they are being like this, the parents or the children. If it were just one English family doing this I'd assume they had other issues, but there are three families all ganged up and so this is making me think, is it us, am I missing some obvious thing?
Thanks for reading, it was quite therapeutic to get it down!