Ds is in Y7. He sailed through primary with a large friendship group - always in a group of kids in the playground and after school and very happy and confident.
His group went to several different secondary schools, but his two best friends from the groups were going to same school as ds. They are both in the same tutor group, and ds was put into a different tutor group without anyone he was either friends with or even friendly with.
Ds has had quite a lot of issues with bullying at his secondary, which the school have dealt with but it's knocked his confidence. He is in a tutor group with some really mean kids who have been quite vocal about disliking him and how annoying he is. He's struggling to cope with the additional pressures and expectations of secondary, and these things seem to have changed him into a different boy.
His two best friends have a little group of nice boys in their tutor group, and ds has really tried hard to integrate himself into this group but he says to me this evening that he feels like he's always on the edge and following others, but no one seeks him out and no one ever messages him outside of school.
It seems like he's totally lost his social confidence and mojo and is feeling really lonely and dejected.
I'm not very confident socially myself so I dont feel particularly like I can advise him or help him very effectively but it's breaking my heart to see him suffer like this. I feel like it's history repeating because very similar happened to me in secondary and it took me years into adulthood to get over it.
What can I do to help him?