My son is oin 6th grade at an all boys school. Up until this year, he was doing reasonably well.

YOU HAVE NOT FAILED AS A PARENT! You are your child's advocate. You are looking out for his best interest. My son is struggling in the 5th grade too, but we are having him stick it out. What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger. That is our philosophy. Our son totally hates his teacher and we tell him the best way to get back at her is by being the role model student and not give her any reason to pick on him or say mean things. This has turned my son around completely. He's completing his tasks and participating in class all to "Get back at his teacher"

I can so relate. My 11 year old just got into a brand new school(through a lottery so he was very lucky to get in) He is having so many challenges: staying organzied, concentrating in school and completing homework. I was thinking that maybe since he has such a long compute to school maybe its affecting his ability to concentrate in class. If I get him into a school thats closer his work may improve and the upside to that is the school I have in mind has a wonderful music program while the one he's attending doesn't. The downside is he'll no longer be in uniform and its not in the best neighborhood. I am frustrated with my middle school choices and feel like I should just move out of the zone.
I hope your situation improves just remember to talk to your child through the whole decision making process and see how they feel about the situation-Lord knows you may not get a straight answer out of any tween but this way you won't feel like your making the decisions for him or have guilt that you made the wrong ones!
As per bullying its a big issue that you should Not let the principal brush under the table. They should have a no tolerance policy and when they do they'll brush it off like the two of them are going at it rather than one picking on another. Ask to speak with the school counselor and see how they are handling the situation.

For years, my son has been bullied at school (and at day care) a lot. Kids with ADHD struggle to fit in because they do not have the same development/maturity of social skills. Prior to 6th grade my son did not have friends of his same age. His very few friends (1 or 2 max) were normally 2 years younger than him. Because my son's interests were different than the interests of his peers (my son was into Pokemon or legos instead of into roller skating or surfing) other kids really picked on him. I have always told him to be true to himself and that more important than been popular is to have few "real" friends. Growing up and trying to fit in is tough. My son's therapist says that usually, by High School, kids with ADHD catch up with other kids in the maturity level.

Now, in 7th grade, he has just 2 close friends of the same age. In this new school kids had bullied him too. He has been called loser and so forth and he has been hurt physically (dead legs). I tell my son the best way to fight back bullying is to be sucessful in school and in life. When other kid hurt him physically my son went to the vice-principal and the other kid got in trouble. Bullying will never stop completely. There are too many kids and only so many teachers/school staff. How our kids handle the bullying is what we can help them with.

Parent involvement is very critical for kids to be sucessful at school. After a rough 3rd grade (behavior wise due to his OCD, he though other kids were "contaminated") my son finally got an IEP. When my son started 4th grade the school was calling us several times a week for us to pick him up (before the end of the school day) because my son was misbehaving and they could not handle him. He got suspended twice in a period of 1 month !!! After the second suspension I sent a very strong email to the Principal stating our concerns about the approach the school was taken and the fact that the IEP support system had not been implemented for my son. After that, there were no more phone calls or suspensions for the rest of the school year and for the rest of the elementary school experience. I kept in contact with my son's teacher(s) via email. If you work with the school as a team you will get results.

This school year took me longer but I finally sent emails to each teacher my son has now and to the school counselor. Just to introduce myself and to let them know I am here to work as a team with them in case my son needs behavior adjustments. So far so good...

i am going through the same thing with my son. He was always coming home depressed and he just struggled so bad in math. Well i went to the school and got him into a tutoring class and i found out that he was getting bullied everyday. I had a talk with the principal and well we just started a new year so hopefully it will help. I don't know some boys are more mature than others and i think you just have to give them sometime.