Am I over-reacting or do I have good reason to want to change my child's school?

Tweet

I have been having problems with my kid's school. It started 3 years ago with me being called into school regarding my oldest son. I still don't really know what the actual reason was for it but, basically, the head teacher tried to pick out all sorts of "normal" things to use to accuse me of not looking after my child. These normal things included the fact that my son didn't wear a jumper to school (because he didn't want to), helped around the house and occasionally helps to make dinner (he was 9 at the time). Then, I thought that was sorted until my younger son started at the school. Now, there are so many things I could say but the main things are: My son has "additional needs" which the school knew before he started yet he has not had the help which the school told me they would make sure he had. There were meetings set up to discuss my son's progress/targets/help in which I should have been included but wasn't even told about. The head teacher was heard in a public place having what ought to have been a private conversation. She asked my older son "leading" questions about his home life and she was also really rude to me when I tried speaking to her and then was always unavailable to speak to after I complained to the school governors. One of my younger son's problems is with "toileting" and, at one point, the head teacher at the school tried to accuse me of sending him to school in soiled trousers - she showed me the soiled trousers and they did not even belong to my son. Obviously no one wanted to know when I said that because I don't suppose anyone would imagine that anyone would do what she did. That all happened last year. This year, my son has a teacher who seems really "flappy" and "flustery". I've been on school trips with the class and was glad I was there because if it wasn't for the parent volunteers, I wouldn't be surprised to see several children getting lost or being left behind (one of my older child's friends actually was left behind one on a school trip). It also seems my son has been bullied. Last year, another boy was getting him into trouble. Fortunately that was sorted out with the other boy's mum. More recently, my son came home with his shoes full of mud and leaves. He told me that 3 boys told him to take his shoes off, they filled them with mud and they threw mud at him. He said he didn't tell a teacher because he couldn't see a teacher to tell. Then, this week, they had a no uniform day at school. My son wore his football shirt. He came home with a hole in it. I asked how it happened and he told me someone had deliberately cut it with scissors (the cut was near his chest and could have hurt my son). Both myself and my OH spoke to his teacher about it several times. The teacher more or less accused my child of lying and of doing it to himself. I asked my son several times, he looked me in the eye and repeated the same information and the same name. As I said to his teacher, I could see no reason why he would insist that this had happened if it hadn't. Basically, the teacher was sticking up for the other kid. I have a feeling that the truth is my child is telling the truth but the teacher doesn't want to admit that she had no idea that a child was wandering around attacking people with scissors (a child who I know - because I have seen it with my own eyes - has been horrible to my son on several other occasions). The teacher asked the kid directly in front of me if she did do it. Of course she said no and the teacher seemed to automatically believe her. So, the teacher just asks some nasty little brat once whether she did something and believes her but my son says several times that this other kid did cut his shirt and the teacher still accuses him of lying. I was going to call this discussion "Who should I believe?" but, while my son is no angel, I do believe him. I wonder whether the teacher would still be in denial had my child been physically hurt. So, I know that's a lot of information and, believe me, that's only the tip of the ice-berg. I just want to know if these are good reasons for moving my child to another school. Would you try to resolve all of this with the school or look for another school?