My little lad

His first day back after the holidays has been really hard. He got home tonight and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. He kept repeating, "I can't do it, I can't do it....!" He finds school so hard and tries 100%. He has spellings tomorrow and they are his achilles heel. The ones he has been given are too hard for him and not high frequency words but I have to go along with school policy (as I'm in there too often fighting his corner regarding other issues).

I wish I could stop him worrying. It's difficult to explain that whether he can spell percussion or not isn't really that important but learning and trying your best is. And he does that! I just want him to be happy. I want him to be in a job he enjoys rather than going to uni and worrying himself into illness then working himself to death. How do I explain that to a 9 year old who is breaking his heart and thinking this is the end. Breaks my heart :-(