DS toy stolen at school

This stuff really annoys me. If schools allow show and tell they should make sure it’s secure.
dd had a little nail kit we’d bought her for stopping biting her nails stolen. It was in the show and tell tray and got taken. School told me and then added that they couldn’t check bags or coats.

If all the kids emptied their bags and it wasn’t found perhaps it wasn’t stolen but merely lost?

Unlike PPs I think show and tell is great - it’s an early chance to do public speaking, which is a serious skill.

DD does it in Y1, but the teacher is very clear that they shouldn’t bring in anything that they would be sad to loose. I’d impose that even if she didn’t!

We usually do something she’s made / a pretty leaf / a drawing of something that happened at the weekend or similar.

Jumpers and jackets get stolen at DS school and turn up re-labelled with another child's name (I put a name label in a discrete place too so can prove it's ours).
Someone took DS lunch box home and it came back to again one day with another kids name it - label placed over my DS name label.

I'm not surprised the toy got nicked. Nothing valuable or non-essential gets sent to school.

Those saying it should be given to the teacher at the start of the day; kids steal from teachers' desks and drawers too, sadly.

I totally sympathise with parents and kids this happens to but I always say please don't send in anything that is precious. It's harsh lesson to learn that schools are melting pots of all corners of society.

I can still remember at age 4 I had my lovely ice cream rubber (that smelled of ice cream) stolen from my drawer in the classroom. The thief cut it up into little cubes and shared it out round the class!

Bringing a toy for show and tell is banned in most schools. It can cause a lot of jealousy and if there's a wealth disparity then that's even harsher on some children. What educational or personal value is bringing a toy to show and tell anyway? Achievements yes, toys - god no. Sounds like he took a toy into school for fun and it got stolen, lesson learnt I suppose.

What do you mean “do I just accept it for what it is ?” I mean what else can you do ? Involve the police ??

An excellent example of why children are told not to bring toys into school.

I don’t think, ‘show and tell’ is a brilliant idea for this reason.

This is why most schools say no toys in school.

I think this is a good opportunity to suggest they stop show and tell. No reason for it and it will definitely make some kids feel terrible.

sorry you had something stolen, it’s a horrible feeling. But definitely better not to bring anything important into a school. It will get ruined or lost or stolen every time. Hope it’s replaceable 🤞

Kids stealing at age 9 if a fact of life and they grow out of it?

Sounds pretty awful to me.

Stealing isn’t a normal part of growing up, nor should it be normalised.

OP - there’s always at least one antisocial little beast in every class. Sadly your DC will have to keep a closer eye on their possessions, even amongst classmates.

I don’t think that’s the suggestion at all, but neither do I think that’s a full on melodrama is necessary to explain this. Kids steal, it’s a fact of life and kids also grow out of stealing. It’s not excusing theft to acknowledge this. I think it should have been possible to find a way for the responsible child to return it.

Not surprised. DS had his Underarmour baseball cap stolen in yr 5. Head teacher commiserated, but said there were children who would never have had a nice hat and would have helped themselves.

Awful attitude, lesson learnt. 😒

I don’t know any class that has time for ‘show and tell’. It’s got limited educational value. And why would a ‘substitute’ (we call the supply teachers in the UK, op) do that anyway.

Don’t take anything into school you can’t risk getting lost, stolen, swapped or broken.

Doesn’t help, no.

Theft in schools has always been rife IME. I lost count at the amount of things that were stolen from bags, especially from DD's grammar school because the school refused to provide actual lockers.
PE kit, uniform items, even GCSE course work.
DS1 never even got to wear his new football boots - they vanished from the changing room before he had finished getting changed.
People are just dishonest. The parents must have known.

Completly agree, its not all show and tell though, sometimes children bring things in to look cool, show off etc, even though the school asks them not to

9 is way too old for show and tell and never take anything to school you aren't prepared to lose or have broken

Do you have a class WhatsApp group? My friend’s daughter had a couple of things stolen from her bag and her mum put a message in the group and two mothers messaged her privately to say their children had brought the things home. So she did get them back.

Sorry to hear, your son must be very upset if it was something precious he was excited to show
😔

It happened at our school, two Labubu dolls brought in by friends for playtime were stolen on the same day, and an older child had £100 cash stolen from their bag (parents are separated and they were taking saved birthday money from their mum house to their dad's house on changeover day for a shopping trip).

The school took both very seriously, locked down classes and the teacher and head checked all bags before children were allowed to leave, but neither were found. It's a hard lesson to learn that you can't trust everyone and shouldn't take anything special into school.

No it doesn’t. Understanding something is not the same as condoning it

My dd had two things stolen when taking them for show and tell since September. We now send a photo of the item she wants to discuss on the app so she can still join in without taking the item. We were told the teacher isn’t allowed to ask the children to check their bags etc so it’s not worth her taking stuff in anymore.

My 22 year old DD is still sore about her missing Lotso’ Hugging Lego Bear, btw. When she took it into school I told her if it went missing I would have limited sympathy. Sure enough it was taken. And yes, I gave her very limited sympathy.

I loathe ‘show-off-and-tell’. I am happy for children to share a brilliant picture they’ve drawn, a sports medal, or dance certificate. But I don’t want them showing off an expensive toy (for the reasons in the OP), or talking about their lovely trip to Chessington (which always seems like a celebration of spending money).

Many schools ban toys coming in. I think that’s sensible, as it means that the teacher doesn’t have to waste time dealing with the fallout of missing toys.