to tell my son's new school that another boy threatened to punch him

[daytoday]

My son has started in a new school in Year 6. He knows no one. He is very friendly and will undoubtedly make lots of friends. He confessed tonight that one new friend put him in headlock tonight and threatened to punch him in the face. I think they were heading somewhere together and my son went to get drink. The other boy got worried that he was lost or something and when he met up, grabbed his hair put him in a headlock and threatened him.

I am really not happy about this - should I email his teacher? Am I over reacting? Should I give it time? Tell the parent? throw banana skins at the child?

How did your son react? If he stood up for himself and told the kid to back off or he'd lay him out flat, I'd leave him to it. If he ran off crying and did nothing, I'd have a sit down talk about how to stick up for himself before looking for some intervention from the school.

Agree with California.

It may have been a 'joke' as nothing physical happened. DC are known for their shite sense of humour at that age. I would wait and see.

My son is a good judge of character, even though he's only 10. He told the kid that if he did that again they wouldn't be friends and he would tell the teacher. I have every faith that my son will get his head around it - but its just a bloody shame to have to deal with this when you've just changed schools. This other kid is new too.

He's not the sort to tell for no reason. It wasn't a joke - the kid was angry. We are going to sit on it and see if anything more happens.

Good on him for setting boundaries for friendship so young. It is a shame but maybe the other new boy is not as emotionally mature as your DS. Hope it's behind you and he enjoys his new school.

Its lads asserting their status, girls do this in a different way. If it escalates then worry. Keep a record of incident, who, whete, time what happened etc.

Sounds like the other kid tried it on to see if he could be top dog and your Ds shot him down. I'd just watch and see how the friendship plays out, make sure to keep asking him how it's it going and how the friend is behaving.

Oh your poor DS. I think I'd see if there was another incident before I said something but would keep an eye on it. Is your son a talker? Will he let you know if he's being threatened or treating badly?

Thanks for the responses. My son is not a massive talker and doesn't want to snitch. He is now trying to create some space in the friendship, which I am very proud of. I am supporting him with this but will secretly log any incidents. Because they are both new I don't want the teachers to lug them together. Hopefully they won't.