A VULNERABLE boy with special needs has been forced out of his Farnham school by "cruel and vicious" bullies, his mother has claimed.

Julie Mould, the mother of the 14-year-old boy who suffers from two serious medical conditions, has called for staff at Heath End School to admit they have "failed" her son and to recognise the bullying which she claims first began three years ago.

Without this admission, she stated, it would be impossible for her son to win Surrey County Council funding to take up his place at a special needs school in time for the start of his important GCSE work.

But a spokesman for the council has maintained that action had been taken by the education authority to help the boy, and that a transfer was not necessary.

The spokesman added that a full investigation had recently been completed which showed Heath End School was meeting the boy's needs.

David Hoggins, the headteacher at Heath End, also confirmed that staff had looked into the claims of bullying.

Mr Hoggins said: "Bullying is a very important issue and we do all we can to stop it from happening at the school. All pupils are taught that bullying is wrong and staff take every allegation very seriously."

Mrs Mould is now faced with the prospect of taking the matter to a tribunal, where she will appeal against the county council's decision that her son should stay at Heath End.

She said: "My son suffers from Neurofibromatosis which has led to him being quite small for his age. He also has mild Aspergers Syndrome, which means he has some psychological problems. His life is difficult enough as it is, and the bullies were making things even worse."

And she told The Herald that her son was recently signed off school by his GP for "emotional difficulties" - believed to have been caused by his ordeals.

"In the latest incident my son was set on by a gang of boys who emptied three cans of deodorant over his head. He is regularly called names in class, and we believe that he has been physically attacked," she claimed.

A tragic diary kept by the boy also reveals his feelings of exclusion from his year group and includes accounts of regular bouts of verbal abuse, the family claimed.

Mrs Mould said: "My son has written in his diary about times when boys in his class have picked on him by flicking his ears and throwing his pencil case around the classroom. His condition means that he finds it more difficult than other children to interact socially, this makes it even harder for him to deal with the bullying."

He started a trial assessment period at Moorhouse School this week, and Mrs Mould said that if all goes well she will take out loans to pay his school fees for the next term. After these loans have been used up, she will be unable to pay the school fees.

"We are going to appeal against the LEA decision, but this process is quite lengthy and we needed to take immediate action to protect our son. "

Mrs Mould wants to make it clear the family bears no ill will towards staff at Heath End School. But after a meeting held on Tuesday with her son's special education needs co-ordinator and an assistant head, she claimed she was forced to take immediate action.

Some of the suggestions made at this week's meeting, claimed Mrs Mould, included allowing her son to take breaks in the learning resources area and cutting the time he spends in lessons with his classmates.

"It's excellent that the school has been making an effort to help us, but I want my son's life to be as normal as possible. These measures would just make him feel even more isolated from the other pupils," she added.