My son moved at this same point in the school year at age 7. There was bullying and jealousy and competitiveness towards my son (kids disrupting him on purpose during weekly subject tests so that he would score less etc). He was also the "positive role model" as pemberley put it, and had to sit with a group of disruptors and he had a hard time with their deliberate disruptions and them breaking rules which seemed illogical to him. When the bullying became too much, he was moved to another class room (they had 4 classes for his grade). All the kids, including the bullies wanted to know why he left the classroom. He says that he shrugged and told them that he "did not know why it happened". He just told them that he was instructed to report to the other classroom and he just followed the instructions from the front office. He also says that they stopped asking him after a week. He thrived in the other room and had a great year at school after that change.
