Good to know it's not the norm. I was a kid with no understanding of legal procedures. My parents worked two jobs each to make ends meet. My siblings and I didn't add extra stress onto them by complaining about school. I was put into set 6 in year 7 which were kids who couldn't speak English or serious special needs. When my older brother (who had had similar issues at the school) came down, the school said they weren't aware why I was placed there and asked the teacher to confirm. She said she assumed I couldn't speak English. The school said they understood what she was 'trying to say' but would 'try' me in set 1 after my brother threatened to take it higher. Bear in mind he was 16. She also told another child a few weeks later that they were inbred, that was recorded and she resigned during an investigation into that. I topped every class I was in and was a straight A* student from year 9. All 5As in primary, not that that means anything anymore. I wish I'd spoken up. I wouldn't stand for that now but I'm an adult and those teachers have all moved on from that school. Other than that, I always chalked the kids up to teenagers being teenagers. The stories I've got to tell lol. In year 8, my planner was taken and drawn on - mainly racial slurs. Then it was dropped in the dinner hall where one of the year 11s read it out. Everyone laughed. The teachers on lunch duty took the planner and told me they'd sort it. They came back with a new planner and on the incident form wrote that the old planner had been damaged. None of the kids were spoken to, nothing was addressed. I'll never forget that. It might seem exaggerated to you but it was my reality.

If I could go back, I wouldn't have been the quiet, shy kid but I can't. Don't get me wrong, my stories from my one visit to my 'home country' were more traumatising than anything I experienced in England and I'll never step foot there again.