My child's bruises

[dandelionss]

My DD is in Y2 and lives and breathes gymnastics.As she is getting a bit further on with it, the potential for getting hurt seems to be increasing.She is due back at school on Monday and I noticed in the bath tonight she has got bruising and a graze to the back of one shoulder (she had quite a low backed leotard on) and bruising to her inner thigh.When i asked her she said her arms were wobbly from doing a lot of bars work, and had given collapsed when she was doing siomething or other on the beam.She can't have hurt herself too much because she hadn't mentioned it before then.
I am worried what the school will think with child protection being so forefront in everyone's mind.Do I tell the teacher everytime she gets a bruise.They are well aware she is a competitive gymnast and pretty much always has minor bumps and bruises .But what if they are documenting it all?

No, don't be silly.

If they do see the bruises and are concerned, they'll ask her, and she'll tell them exactly what she told you.

It won't concern them at all.

I have two boys that play football , rugby and at one time did judo - covered in bruises.

The only time mentioned it to the school when one of them got injury to face after rugby - which thankfully is not very often at their age. My boys have bruises on legs and constant grubby knees !

Nothing to be worried about .

But I would have a word with her coach and make sure she's not being pushed too hard? ( ex gym mum talking)

I agree with seeker - my dd is also yr2 and in a competitive gymnastic squad but she doesn't come home injured like that. As a one off incident I think you have to accept that accidents happen but being "pretty much always" bumped and bruised seems like they may be pushing her to do things which she is not yet comfortable with.
I wouldn't worry about the child protection side of things though, as she can clearly explain what happened.

Thanks for your replies.I guess I am a bit silly to be worried.
Yes she has had a different much younger coach recently and I think she leaves them to their own devices too much .Whilst I can understand it's sometimes good to practise new skills without a coach breathing down your neck, that has to be balanced up against safety.Just to clarify she isn't regularly badly bruised though!

I'd agree with Seeker too. One of mine does gym (non-competitive) and has only once got a bruise from gym (right between the eyes it was-she likes to be different)

However I know children who do competitive gym, doing (and winning) competitions all round the country and I'm certain that none of them you'd say "always has bruises". One of them her mum commented she seemed to get injuries (and she was talking bruise type) more often than any of the others, but you're talking 2-3 times for a bruise you'd notice without looking for.

Dandelions- that would set alarm bells ringing for me. Do you watch training sessions?

At this age they shouldn't be doing unsupervised apparatus work.

Is it only at gymnastics? Or does she bruise very easily all the time?

No I don't think she bruises particularly easily

As an ex competitive gymnast and coach I never had a huge number of bruises. I'm a little worried by her explanation, she is year two she shouldn't be working so hard she collapses. Also I'm concerned by how you say her new coach leaves them to it sometimes, I was fully supervised particularly on the bars, beam and vault. Maybe you should have a quiet word with the head coach, just to raise your concerns. As a teacher as long as I knew they were a gymnast I wouldn't be worried, however if I was I'd ask the child how they got it and it would depend on whether I was happy with the response as to where I'd take it next. We do have to be vigilant, but obviously children are children. Hths!