DS confidence being knocked by the school, would you complain?

[Eve]

I have no issue with the individual teaching of DS (14) standards are high & he enjoys school.

I have an issue with the management of the pupils & how it's knocking him.

They will all banded into a band and b band, a all top sets, b bottom. DS has severe dyslexia so ended up in b band , and it really knocked his confidence. A band get opportunies to go on trips to observatories etc, b band don't & DS would love to go, but in his view b band aren't good enough. He didn't get appointed prefect, as again not good enough in b band.

He works really hard, but this a / b band is really getting him down. I feel like sending an email to the school about how they are crushing his confidence. All I hear from him is a band / b band & how's he's only b band.

Would you mail the school over it?

I would contact the school (his tutor).

Say his confidence is low due to being in B band.
He thinks that B band don't get to go on interesting trips
He thinks that B band don't get to be prefects

Say you assume he has got wrong end of the stick re trips and prefects, please could they clarify for you so you can talk with him.

Ask whether they can help you build him up again.

I would ask for clarification, along the lines of:
Dh is concerned that by being in band b he is not seen as being capable of being a prefect or coping with educational trips such as the one that band a are going on.
While I am certain that you would not behave in such an arbitrary fashion, I would like to be able to reassure ds of this and I feel that having the date of when his group will be offered this trip would help.
I may even throw in dyslexia being covered under the equalities act and that they are discriminating against him indirectly if they do not offer him the same opportunities. It would depend on how hacked off I was and how many conversations I had already had.
Definitely seek clarification.

Ds not dh. Tired sorry.

I would agree that children should be offered equal opportunities. My experience however, is that schools can take who they want on trips and exclude the ones they think won't get as much out of it, or for other reasons, such as favouritism and only taking children they like. Maybe lots of children don't get to be prefects. Is this a slight against him alone or all the B group?

I actually hate this sort of separation but schools seem to have no problems with it at all. Where I live the 11+ does it at year 7! The have's and the have nots are not even in the same schools!

Slight hijack: we don't only take pupils we like on trips

But I would contact the school to set out your concerns - which are rational - and ask what stretch and challenge opportunities are being offered to band b.