What can I realistically expect school to do about verbal bullying?

[inthename]

Yr 7
ds has been verbally bullied by the same boy on and off since yr 5 ( prep school so goes to year 8)
He spreads rumours about ds, makes personal comments about me to ds, critcises anything ds is interested in and gets others to call him names because apparently liking steam trains makes ds a 'weirdo' and any new students joining the school are immediately told by this boy all about what he supposedly 'knows' about ds and that I am apparently scum who lives on benefits (unsure where that particular little gem came from!)
It stopped at the beginning of this term thanks to the form tutor having a word but has now started up again as DS is the only child not going on a residential.trip as I can't afford it (lone parent with no support offered from ds dad for cost of trip) as they have quoted around £500 for a few days in France.
This boy comments on ds hobbies, that we live in a flat rather than a house, that I don't drive, you name it and hes got some spiteful comment circulating about and DS is at the end of his tether.
Childs mum is alpha female to the point of if shes around other mums won't even nod hello to me and he is centre of every single event, lead in school play etc, has numerous detentions each week
What can the school realistically do and what should I be asking them to do

Have you spoken to the school since it started again? If yes what is their response? Can they not speak again to the boy concerned and ask him to stop and they should also speak to the parents. I'd be furious if my DS was behaving like this.
The school can't make this boy like your DS or vice versa but no school should allow this kind of unpleasant behaviour.

Contacted school yesterday, problem seems to be that this child gets w

sorry phone playing up.
child always gets worse at end of term, which this time is only a few days away, and childs parents have been called in frequently as he does this to others but its the usual mothers are all 'great friends' and he always transfers back to my ds.

stuck record? Make yourself more annoying than the mother? At other schools this behaviour would result in eg removal from school trip and general disgrace.

At my DCs state secondary the actions would be: detention for the child, if he repeated the offence or said something like "you got me into trouble" they would be in isolation. If it was a pattern of behaviour they would be on their way to exclusion.

But I also know other schools where their actions would be ineffectual - which is why they have a bullying problem.
Where is your son heading for secondary? What does he have to do to get there? Is there any way you can change schools for him?
I don't believe the school is taking this seriously.

I think merry is right you've got to really be more vocal about this. Put it in writing to head and the governors carefully detailing what's been said. Ask them to draw up some kind of plan about how they are going to deal with this, what punishments the boy will receive if he continues, obviously his parents should be informed. No school should tolerate this kind of unpleasantness.

merry - they've done all of that, they think the latest bout of nastiness is because he was internally excluded for 2 days and not allowed to go on end of term treat whereas my ds is in top 3 of year group.
happy - its already with all of those people as the other boy is literally receiving 5 detentions a week for behaviour in school. I get the feeling its got to the crunch and nobody has made a decision and school (rightly so) can't tell me what they are actually doing.
Have reported it again and will go and see the teacher this evening. Thanks to all of you, didn't want to end up as 'that parent' but looks like broken record here I come!

You're not that parent. You are just trying to stop your son being bullied. If the teachers had a child who was being bullied they'd be doing the same

They've sorted it again. child has been made to apologise. Head has implemented a plan. I am assured that they are stamping down hard on this, so lets hope so

Glad they have sorted it for the moment.

You aren't 'that parent'. He is 'that child'. If he didn't keep on having a go at your son you wouldn't have to keep reporting it to staff. You and your son are allowed to set boundaries and state what is unacceptable behaviour.