Aibu to expect the teacher to notice bruises?

[Worriedwonderwoman0]

Bear with me as this is a new school for us so I'm trying to be level headed
My son is now in year 1 although one of the younger ones so only just 5 years old.
Seems like quite a lively class of kids and I'm sure like all boys the way he plays can be rougher than I expect as at home he has a baby sister so nobody to play like this with.
Well he comes home from school with 6 bruises on his lower arm, just below the elbow. One is pretty big so looks like a knock into a table but the other 5 are tiny but dark as fresh just like the larger one.
It was PE yesterday which they do after lunchtime where this must or happened and these weren't picked up on.
I'm now worried the other children are either pulling him around too roughly or pinching him.
I'm surprised she didn't notice them at changing time considering he would then have been in a short sleeved polo shirt for the lesson.
I don't want to start badly with a new school but surely this is something they should have noticed and if they did surely they should have spoken to me about it?

Surprised not supervised *

And if they look like finger marks and there are 5 it's safe to say another child was pulling him as they ran away from the 'catchers'

If he wasn't upset when it happened, why does it even matter? The staff are probably too busy worrying about the ones that are crying because they scraped their knee to worry about the ones playing happily. Bruises are not a big deal, unless your son is upset or worried about something I wouldn't bother doing anything.

If your DS isn't upset, then it's just the rough and tumble of the playground.

I don't notice bruises on my own DC - I'm assuming there are bruises, given the type of play that occurs.

If either of them seemed unhappy or upset about anything that happened, then I'd be worried. But they don't at all, so....

I'm not sure how it works at your ds's school but my DD1 who's also in year 1, changes herself for pe, so does everyone else in her class. The teacher is there but they encourage the children to do it themselves, this might be why they didn't pick up on the bruises. And I agree with other pps it's a tiny bit unreasonable to expect one person to pick up on them. You wouldn't bu to mention it, but they've got a lot of other children to look after too.

Thanks for replying and perhaps I'm expecting too much
He did reception in a private prep school with a lot less children per class so this is a change for him and us!
It is obvious as adult fingers would take up a kids entire forearm whereas these are smaller than 5ps and take up less than half of his arm.
I suspect it's probably just rough play as he's not upset about them and would tell me I hope if someone was punching him to cause upset.
I didn't think a child grabbing another would cause such injuries but I think I'll just mention it for her to keep an eye out, in case it gets worse and one of them gets really injured!

Hi Worriedwonderwoman0

The safeguarding training that school teachers receive, is slightly different to that of nursery teachers. Whereas nursery teachers would report every bruise/knock/cut/accident as and when found, to parents, school teachers follow these procedures:

1. If a bruise (or other injury) is found in an unusual place (such as inner thigh), then that is reported to the school safeguarding officer straightaway.

1. For other bruises, a story/context comes in to play. If we notice a child is presenting with sustained bruising over a period of time, often in different places and not the usual knees etc. then that is reported. Another scenario could be that the child has also changed behaviour recently; become withdrawn, is obviously hiding bruises or says that they 'walked in to a door', then that may also be reported. There are other situations but I won't mention them all here.

A cluster of bruises on a one off occasion, after visible play/P.E is not a safeguarding issue and would not be reported or mentioned to the parent either. If, that child continued to have multiple bruises and other information including becoming withdrawn/angry or reported anything to infer bullying or overly rough play, then the teacher would act accordingly.

I hope that your son is okay - he sounds as if he had great fun at school and has found some good friends quickly!

There are certain places you expect kids to have bruises. Mine are literally covered in them! I wouldn't worry he's being pulled about op if he's no one to play with like this at home he's probably living his superhero games! I've only ever been asked to fill in forms or pulled up on marks when they've had them on their face and head. They're crackers so this is sadly frequently!

My 2 are constantly covered in bruises and tbh I don't always notice/remember how they got them at weekends/holidays so I certainly wouldn't expect a teacher to notice and tell me.
I've had a few notes home from the medical room from DD1 falling over/banging head and after school club staff (mostly ta's)are brilliant and always saying what's happened.

Rolyrocks, thanks for an informative response.
I understand why teachers would act in line with what you've said and that makes sense but I also wouldn't want them wondering if anyone is hurting him outside school either so it would have been good for them to mention as I then could have explained my concerns about the playground games however now left not knowing whether to bother mentioning or not and by bringing to their attention I'm looking like a loopy parent still expecting private school ratio supervisor which I'm really not!

Mine has flung his arms up a few times as running past doors and got a horrible looking bruise on the front of his arm, but they're pretty big so I can see why the midwife may have thought thay, how embarrassing for you when it was clearly not that at all!!

My children are hyper mobile and bruise easily. The week my daughter learnt to ride a bike it looked like her legs had gone through a ringer. I'm sorry it is unlikely a teacher will ever walk around inspecting the arms of the children in their class.