Sorry, bit of a long one.
There hasn't been one 'major' incident, but enough smaller issues after the first year for me to be more than considering it. My husband is so on the fence, he has splinters in his backside, and thinks to think we need to give it another good term or two before giving in.
My biggest gripe at the moment is the injuries that he's coming home with and has evidently not been checked over or noted by a teacher. I'm not talking just bumped shins, I mean full scrapes or lumpy heads. His poor knee was black and blue one evening, if I had sent him into school with that level of bruising I'd probably have had a phonecall, but the school just brushed it off as 'one of those things'. The worst one was a phonecall to say he'd 'bumped his head', when I went in to get him he'd obviously scraped half his head on the playground. Again, the school was pretty blasé about it, basically shrugged and said they hadn't seen what happened but he seemed fine, they just had to follow protocol. They never seem to see what happens
.
There are other issues as well. He hasn't had his class teacher for weeks, but the school haven't officially confirmed that they have left or taking a break. I dont need to know the details, but I do want to know who is actually teaching my child. He had a difficult time settling in, and is under a pathway for possible ASD diagnosis based on his social issues primarily. I asked from the start for the school/his teacher to keep me updated on what he's struggling with, and specifically said that he needed calm time-outs when obviously getting over stimulate (he stims when this happens) - all I ever had was one end of week email, and in the early weeks a very frustrated little boy who was being told off and sent out. They tried to suggest the issue was that he'd not had enough social interaction before starting Reception as he hadn't been to nursery - even though he had been to both preschool and local playgroup full time, along with other activities. I gave a full background before he started, they just hadn't read it and continued to insist he hadn't had group experience several times.
For all he struggles with socially, he currently is excelling at some of the learning aspects. He could read exceptionally well before starting school (he reads at least one Julia Donaldson type book a day), but the school don't encourage this. His weekly reading has only just changed from the Level 1 Oxford books - even his nursery had him on higher levels. He has a natural aptitude for maths, yet never seems to do anything but the very basics with the other children. I don't expect them to treat him like a genius, but is it unreasonable to expect a bit of differentiation? During lockdown we ended up pretty much doing our own thing outside the creative tasks as they were just too easy and took zero time to complete. It seemed rather unfair, as often they set tasks he couldn't partake in due to his sensory issues.
One other issue, which will seem pretty trivial but does genuinely affect him, is that they refuse to use his 'shortened' name over his full one. They asked for his preferred name on the forms, yet never call him anything but his full name. Let's say his full name is Frederick but he insists on being called Freddy. They make a point of always calling him Frederick and insist all the other children do as well. He is the only 'Frederick/Freddy' in his year, so it's not to avoid confusion, and it's certainly not a posh school. It just seems such a silly thing for them to not only push themselves but have all the other children do so, and again unnecessarily upsets/irritates him. Obviously on schoolwork and forms I expect him to be full-named, but when saying 'good morning'? Possibly unreasonable on this one, but his preschool never called him anything but short form and he was far, far more settled when there.
That was a bit of an essay! The TLDR is, don't feel the school adequately communicates, worried about how often he's being injured beyond the usual bumps, and don't feel he's being treated like an individual - would you move your child under these circumstances?