Playground issues and bullying

[Blomme]

Hello, I'm posting to see if anyone has similar experience and what they did / would do. My son has speech delay, previously struggled with mutism and has anxiety. He had a few days in a row of high anxiety, waking in the night (very unusual) and fairly challenging behaviour such as not wanting to eat his dinner, not wanting to follow instructions (also quite unusual). It finally came out that 3 boys at school have been hurting him. When I spoke to the teacher she said that they have had to speak to him about not pushing away those boys. Or he crosses his arms in the air and says "fighting them". But the reason he is doing this is that he is still completely unable to seek help when he is being hurt. We've tried for 2 years now to get him to find a teacher or TA if he is being hurt, but he just can't. We have a social story we will go over yet again. Has anyone else got a solution /idea? Thanks.

Late to this but can school provide somewhere safe for him to go? School library, dedicated classroom open for kids who are more vulnerable, invitation only area of the playground. Not being able to get away from bullying is just awful.

Thanks for the reply. I think he really needs to be outside at playtime. I'll ask if there can be a safe space outside, good tip, thank you. I'm very disappointed by the schools lack of action/ response so far.

Yes it seemed completely impossible to solve at our juniors too and in hindsight I only regret not moving him.

I would suggest asking them to support him physically practising going to the safe place too. We had great trouble conveying that he just couldn't get away in the moment, and people telling him he can just feels like gaslighting to him. Secondary have understood, but we have had to give up on him having outdoor space even though he really needs it.