How should I handle this

[KaraStarbuckThrace]

DS (2.11) has been moved from the tweenies room to the preschoolers room at his nursery, where he goes twice a week. First few times he has absolutely loved it, however this morning he got really upset and said he didn't want to go. Took him into the Tweenies room instead and the staff suggested they would take him up to preschool later.
They took him up there at 2pm, and he played happily but got upset later in the afternoon.
I picked him up at 5pm, and another little boy saw me and started pushing him towards me. I think the little boy was just trying to be helpful but DS burst into tears

Anyway took him home and he has been sat on the sofa with me and he has told me "me don't like preschool". I asked him why and he said "boy hit me, a little boy and a big boy hit me and hurt me. Me scared of them"

Going to talk to the nursery about this, I am wondering if the staff are aware of this, if they would only speak to the other boys' mums and not me, or should I expect them to tell me something like this?

I have told DS he can go to tweenies for now but he will need to go to Preschool in the new year as he will be three then.

Just going to put DS to bed then I'll check for replies.

TIA.

your poor DS. Pre School is a very different environment from toddler / tweenies with a larger age range, it tends to be a more rough n tumble experience and can be quite overwhelming to start with, pre-school is imo one of the major changes and transition periods for a young child. It could well be that the "hit" was a bit of over zealous play and your DS, not being used to the group fully has been upset by it. I would certainly broach the matter with the nurserys transitions officer and your childs key worker just to ensure they are aware of what has happened, I'm presuming that your DS has had a good few settling in sessions in pre-school prior to officially moving up with his previous key worker, he may need a little more one to one time and a little bit more support from the carers to boost his big kid confidence again. I'm not sure if putting him back into tweenies may be the best option it may become all the more difficult for him to settle back in in the new year, however you know your DS best and how upset he is, personally if at all possible I would encourage you to stick with it and get the extra support for your son from the staff.

Thank you for your reply. I agree I don't really want him to go back in to the tweenies.
DS is quite advanced in certain areas such as language and play which is why they were keen to move him up, and he did have some settling sessions and really loved it.
But he is small for his age, and a sensitive wee soul - I've never known him to ever hit back if he himself gets hit, he just gets upset.
I'm going there tomorrow anyway - the nursery is in a Surestart building where I have a MW appt so was going to pop in and have a word with them then.