How can I help my 12 year old ds?

[mumintears]

Name change for this one.

Ds is in year 7 at local comprehensive - bright, does well in school-work, likes athletics and cricket and in school cross-country team. Still a cuddly boy at home, and although he gets belligerent at times, on the whole is good to have around.

BUT

he has a hot temper. He has improved a lot, but still has times when he loses it in school. And sometimes he is just silly.

I had a call today from his head of year to ask me if he'd said anything to me about an incident where he'd brandished a pair of scissors at someone (not sure if he really meant it with intent, if he happened to have the scissors in his hand, or it was a joke gone wrong). Nobody was hurt. No details yet, as HOY was investigating. DS is in internal exclusion while investigations are ongoing. HOY will phone me later with more info.

So that I don't dripfeed, he has had problems with one boy (unfortunately a carry-over from primary school - and they are in the same class, I didn't know they didn't get on as badly as they do so didn't ask if he could avoid this boy in the class allocations).

On the assumption that it was the same boy, do I ask for a class move - at the very least for the next school year and hope that there are no more incidents this year? I know the school won't be keen and right away is probably really not an option. I changed Maths sets mid-year at my secondary school, but that was one subject.

If it wasn't the usual boy, would I be unreasonable to call the local police and ask if they can send a PCSO over to talk to him about how serious this could be if he did it in the big wide world? Or maybe do it anyway?

And is it worth asking the school if they have contacts to someone who can help him with anger management?

Is there anything else I can do to help him? I really want this to be the last time. We had a great year in year 6 with no incidents at all, but there have been a few small incidents this year culminating in this. He might get a fixed term exclusion for this - it might bring it home to him if he does.