School help!

[Anoi123]

My 12 year old son started high school last year. He had a terrible first year, he scored greater depth in all his SATs and had a glowing end of year report from his primary school yet upon starting high school it quickly became clear he had been placed in all the bottom sets. To cut a long story very short it transpires they had repeatedly confused him with a boy with the same name for the year despite countless attempts on my part to rectify the issue. I won't go into all the issues, but to name just a few I was sent the other boys personal details to my home address and I can only imagine my sons details have been sent, in return, to this other boy's address. My son also missed an entire lesson once as he was pulled out of class to attend a nurture group - he came home puzzled and wasn't quite sure why he'd had to attend - and at one point I was contacted by the school as they wanted to know if he'd ever been on the SEN register due to his levels. There were also a number of behaviour related incidents which my son was confused with having done. Anyway to cut a long story short he became very disheartened and went from a boy who loved learning to one who was very bored and unhappy. He wanted to move high schools and by Summer Term I really had reached the end of my tether with the failings of the school.

In the Summer Term we arranged a managed move, initially we heard nothing as the new school had misplaced the forms but at the very end beginning of September they contacted to say they wanted him to attend with a 6 week period in which he had to meet their attendance, homework criteria etc. He appeared to settle in well, although was obviously struggling with some of the work after effectively missing an entire years worth of schooling. However, last week after he had been at home for the day (sickness) he became very emotional in the evening and said that he really wasn't enjoying it and that he missed his friends and felt lonely.

Now I really don't know what to do, I hate seeing him upset and I want him to enjoy school. Do I encourage him to stick with this new high school where he is being challenged and is engaged with his learning and encourage him to join the rugby team and hopefully make some like-minded friends? Or do I move him back to the original high school where he has more friends?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed, thanks.

Placing him in the bottom sets if they’ve confused him with another boy is an error but what I don’t understand is why they’ve kept him in the second sets. My DD started High School in September and we’ve already been told that she’ll be moving up one set in one subject.

They haven't kept him in the second sets, but very little was done in the year he attended the first school to resolve the issue despite phone calls from the Deputy Head and Headteacher at his primary school. In his new high school he is in all the top sets. Now, he is being told by friends via text message that at his previous high school he is now on all the registers in the top sets there.

Move him back as long as he really is back in top sets and I would think about changing his name as a known as version.

To me the first school sounds so badly managed that your son is best off out of there! Even if no one had drawn the school's attention to the mix up re the identical names, at any half decent school it would very quickly have become apparent that something had gone wrong with the setting process in your son's case, and they would have moved him to higher sets.

Presumably the boy with the same name is still at the school as far as you know? I would have no confidence that the school won't mix up the names again with the result that your son could find himself back in all the bottom sets at the start of Year 9, or taken out of classes this year for isolations that were meant for the other boy. Further down the line, I would be concerned that the school might not enter him for the right GCSEs due to the name confusion, or give him a wrong exam timetable. What if the school call in the police about the other boy's behaviour and your son ends up with a police warning on his record? If there had been a one off mix up over names that had been sorted within a couple of weeks, but from what you say, the first school confused the two boys numerous times and left your son to languish in the wrong sets for a year before taking action!

Sorry, meant to say, "If there had been a one off mix up over names that had been sorted within a couple of weeks, that would be different."