5yo dreading returning to school despite it being over a week away

[Eachpeachpears]

My 5 year old has been a bit off all day, in a bit or a stroppy mood, usual 5 year old stuff at this time of year. However he's just come out with "I don't want to go back to school because I don't like it. People are mean to me. X child says mean things to me".
Honestly my heart is breaking.
Before they broke up for Xmas we kept ds off for the last two days because he came out of school burst into tears saying he was so tired and people were being mean and he was fed up. He also had a chesty cough and cold so we decided enough was enough and kept him home.
He's been so delightful since being off school it's like having my lovely child back.

For context, last term, his first in reception, was full of "this person said X" "he called me X so I called him Y" and at one point there was an incident where a child threw off ds's glasses and hid them. The head teacher was involved (after I emailed) and we were assured the child in question was being dealt with. But this doesn't address the other smaller things which seem to be making ds unhappy. He's taken to the learning like a duck to water which is great.
I don't know what to do. Other people in reception are having similar issues but other parents at other schools are saying they're not having any such issues. It's a really lovely school in an affluent area (which we are on the non affluent side of I must add!). But ds being so unhappy and thinking of such things on new years Eve over a week before school starts again at 5years old is making me question it all.
I've even thought about homeschooling but this would have huge implications which we can't really manage such as me being disabled, limited funds, the possibility of wanting ds to return to school.
I guess I've been hoping this is a minor hiccup but it's becoming more and more clear that it isn't.
What do I do? Any advice? Please!

I would perhaps send an email to the teacher ahead of him returning, outlining some of this. Your ds is only one term in and has had a huge amount to digest in that time and sounds as though he’s had a slightly rough time. Be as encouraging as you can, without being dismissive of his fears and see how it goes.

I think I would firstly wait to see what your DS is like once he's been back a week, ie whether the anticipation was worse than the reality. If your DS remains very unhappy, I would seek to make an appointment with his class teacher and arrange for someone else to look after your DS during the appointment so that you can have a frank discussion in which you ensure the teacher is aware of the issues, but also see if she can shed any light on what is going on.

Aww bless him. Unfortunately you’re going to need to go and speak to the head teacher and complain. Keep going back and complaining. It’s the only way anything is going to change.

I work in a school and unless parents kick up a right fuss nothing is ever done! Teachers are trying to teach but behaviour is often bad and there isn’t enough TAs to shadow these children who are unkind or badly behaved all of the time. It’s likely not the teachers fault but the only way forward here to us keep on at the head teacher, not the actual teacher they can’t do anything. Do stress it’s not the teacher you have the issue with but be forceful. It’s the only way.

Thank you. I definitely agree with kicking up a bit of a fuss to get listened to.
He has two teachers who do half the week each and to be honest neither seem fussed about the issue, almost passing it to the other teacher.
I think I'll do a bit of all of the above, see how he is going back, if it doesn't improve then contact the head again and if that doesn't work explore flexischooling in the short term and state it's because of them not dealing with it but give them ample opportunities to address it first

Schools are a bit rubbish these days op. They don’t deal with behaviour at all, they can’t really exclude children and resources for dealing with children with behavioural issues are pretty non existent unless they have an ehcp which is very difficult to get and takes a long time.
if you want him to stay in that school then write everything down, email after each incident so you have a log and be very very firm with them to get them to follow their own bullying policy. You may get somewhere or you might not. Lots of kids have to move schools due to behaviour. Lots of kids refuse to go to school due to the behaviour of other children, to be fair lots of teachers are leaving the profession because of the inability of schools to deal with behaviour and support children with send.
you are not the only one experiencing this.