I badly need advice on what to do about ds who hates his school

[tevion]

We moved him there at the start of year 3 he was the new boy in school didn,t know anyone.
Alhough it took him a while to settle I thought he was now doing okay.
He is now in year 5 and he has started to really hate the school and never wants to go says the teachers are horrible its so boring, etc etc.
This has got worse with him in the last so many weeks he is feeling really unhappy about going there at the moment and its getting worse.
He moved to this school from an infant school in a different area and he was really happy there had lots of friends and these friends moved onto the juniors that was federated with the infants.
Now he asking to go to that school and that he really misses his old friends and wants to see them again.
It is a much smaller school than his current one and all his old mates are there.
He has made some friends at his current school but it doesn,t seem the same sort of closeness he had with his old ones.
He still keeps in touch with some of his old mates so I don,t think the transition would be hard for him.
However I keep thinking maybe he will feel ahppier there it is true that his current school is a bit regimental but they do get excellent ofsted reports.
I just want him to feel happy about going to school as after all its a big part of their lives.
I have explained that he has been away a long time and his old friends may not seem the same anymore.
Also he will be moving again in less than 2 years to secondary where he will once again be leaving these mates behind.
Please what would you do.

anybody please I am on the brink of phoning the school to see if they have places

Why did you move him initially?

Sorry - missed your second post. Why don't you call them and see if there's a space - then at least you'd know if it was an option?

well we had moved house so new school was closer also me and dp now work near our way.
With hindsight I don,t think I should have moved him but don,t know if its too late now.

Can I just get this straight - he won't actually be going back to his old school, he'll be going to a third school which is the junior school linked with his previous infants' school?

So his friends will be there but it will be a different building?

Thats correct Trubert

are they all going to end up at the same secondary school?

If he's unhappy, and the other school has a space. You should at least go and look round it (once without your DS, once with your DS).

sorry just seen that they wont -in which case I think you should stick it out at the new school whilst maintaining friendships out of school with his old mates

No its very unlikely that will happen snice
Although there is a good chance that he will move onto secondary with some children from his current school.

I should have mentioned that he had the chance last year to move there but he backed out when he had looked around the school although I think it freaked him out a bit new school again etc.

I do think given the chance he would make the move now without backing out as for some reason he really hates his school at the moment

I don't think an unhappy child should be ignored. If you can move him back without too much trouble then I would certainly consider it.

I would also try and find out if there is anything else causing the unhappiness. I often find that children say they are unhappy about one thing, when really it is something entirely different causing the unhappiness. You don't want to move him if the problem moves too.

Best of luck.

we had a similar situation with our ds. We decided to move him back with his friends because he was so unhappy. It was definately the best thing we could have done. He now looks forward to school and enjoys every day. I think your child's happiness is the most important thing. School is such a big part of their life and if they are unhappy there then it affects their mood and behaviour in every aspect of their life. I would definately move him.

agree with Frenchfancy - you need to find out what's making him unhappy, because changing primary school again is going to mean more upheaval and may not solve the problem. Also he'll be going to yet another new school( secondary) in less than 2 years from now, along with some of his current schoolmates. Surely it would be better to make the effort to get him settled where he is now, so that the move to secondary is less traumatic?Can his teachers throw any light on what the problem is?