Update on bullying!!

Josh didn't go to school yesterday as he was too scared and the stress bought on an asthma attack on Wednesday evening. Dh and I went into school yesterday morning and spoke with the headmaster who assured he would stamp the bullying out and said he will not tolerate bullying of any sort in his school. He said he would be talking to Josh's classmates and talking to the bullies and calling their parents into school too.

He was supposed to update me yesterday afternoon when I picked Ellie up but had rather conveniently had to go out to a meeting. So this morning came and Josh got up and dressed and seemed prepared to give things a go again today. We got to school and he froze outside the school gates and said he'd changed his mind and wanted to come home again. We had a quick talk about it and I said I would talk to his teacher and the head again.

We got into the playground and he started to cry and said he had stomach ache. I was so torn as to what to do. I wanted him to give it another chance and see if things have changed but I don't want him to be unhappy either. His happiness is paramount.

I am not sure if I did the right thing or not and I feel dreadful at the moment. I spoke to his teacher and said he is not at all keen about going into school today and she said she will keep an eye on him. Eventually he decided to give it a go and went in but it broke my heart.

I called in the office to see the head about what had been done and I am fuming. I'm really not sure that I can believe him when he told me that the main ringleader and one of the others were off school yesterday too. I thought how convenient!! He said he spoke to some of Josh's classmates and they had given him the names of some of the kids that were picking on him and confirmed that he is being bullied. So it looks as though so far nothing has been done.

I came back home and told dh about it and we will see how Josh is when we pick him up this afternoon. If there has been any bullying today and he doesn't want to go back then he won't. I am so annoyed that these bullies are ruining it for him as other than that he says he loves school and can do the work easily but I can't bear to see him so unhappy.

I don't want to pull him out at the first hurdle but feel that if the school are not going to do anything and Josh refuses to go then I need to get him out of there before it causes any serious damage and puts him off learning for life.

I have just found out this morning too that one of my friend's I haven't seen for a while but whose daughter used to attend the school and would have been in Josh's class has been in touch through facebook and told me that her daughter was bullied by some of the girls in his class and ended up being off with clinical depression. They eventually withdrew her and home educated for a while and she has just returned to a different school. I don't want Josh to end up like this and feel it needs to be stopped now!!