How do you respond to this?

[georgarina]

3 yo DS will come up to me at school pickup or in the playground and say 'so and so hit me/pushed me/said something mean'

Sometimes the kid has run off or it happened earlier in the day, sometimes they're right there and their parents have ignored the behaviour.

I don't know how to respond - whether to say 'That's not very nice, did they apologise?' or 'Don't worry, you'll be alright'

I don't want him to think it's ok for other kids to treat him like that, but don't want to turn it into a bigger issue. How would you respond?

If it happens whilst you're there then yes, say something. If you didn't see it hear it, then it's a bit trickier.
My DC was fond of saying "x pushed me" when in fact x was just getting past
but accidentally knocked into them.

I'll get down to their level and say "oh no are you OK? How did that make you feel?" and generally look concerned so I know they know I'm listening.
Then I'd probably add in that's why we don't do that.
Then I'd subtly try to find out what actually happened. Mostly it's escalated from misunderstandings, my kid being the aggressor first at least half the time.
Then I'd say something upbeat. Ask if the rest of the day was good.
So covering both your options. Keeping an ear out for if there's anything more serious than kids developing their social skills.

Encourage him to tell an adult if he is hurt. If not hurt, I'd be less invested too. He's very young and this will happen to most children a lot in a day at Nursery. Possibly check with Key worker that these incidents aren't serious intent. Then work on building his resilience to this ..wish i had done this more with mine

Thanks everyone, great suggestions - it's clearly not serious, he's very happy and outgoing but it's like he tells me because he wants to know how I'll respond, and I feel caught between staying positive and making him feel heard.

I remember when I was little my mum never got involved with stuff like this, would just ignore it unlike the other mums who might say something, and I remember feeling like I had no one sticking up for me. I don't want to make him feel like that.

Teach your child how to stick up for himself. “Stop it I don’t like it”
“Don’t push me”
“Don’t hit me”

Also every time they tell you someone is nasty, say did you tell the teacher?