Ds1 was bullied quite a lot in YR and Y1. He has very low self confidence and some mild SEN which really affected him the early years. From Y2 the classes were mixed, he found a good friend and generally things were ok, although all teachers say he needs to be more confident. (Yeah right, it's that easy!). He's always been a bit 'vulnerable' but seemed to be ok with his 1 close friend, and a few other peripheral friends.
We moved when he was going into Y5 and he did not settle at all well last year. The bullying was mostly quite subtle, exclusion from groups (I can see in the morning when I drop him how he hangs about on the fringe of them all). By the end there was some physical violence and school dealt with it well. This year seemed to get off to a better start but recently ds1 has been very self conscious about his hair. He gets called 'Cringe fringe' and people say, "I'm glad you're getting a hair cut." He was going on and on about a haircut when he didn't really need one. Now I know why. His hair looks great, he has it cut by a good barber but doesn't always put tons of gel in. (The non gel days are 'Cringe Fringe'). He also had to pretend to be the character 'Cringe Fringe' in order to be given some Match Attax (they never materialised of course). They also point out that his football kit is old season and his shoes are not the latest expensive Nike/ Adidas. They are Adidas but apparently they are from 2007 
they were new this term. Is this commenting on his appearance just 'what kids do' in Y6 and they would do it to anyone, or is it bullying? Today he had a bad cold but also really didn't want to go to school, and I can't face him being unhappy for another whole year. I really thought they were letting him in a bit. I am meeting the teacher tomorrow to talk through some of his issues at the moment and see if he can sit with some other kids who he doesn't know so well. Any advice of what I could say or how to approach this? I feel so oversensitive to bullying as he had such a bad time when he first started school and he was so unhappy, really changed him. I don't want the teacher to think I am ridiculously over protective. Also, do I get the haircuts and the shoes and the kits (we could afford it, but I was waiting for his birthday in November). Or is that just caving in to peer pressure?