Name labels in secondary school uniform

Stikins labels are wonderful. Just stick and go!

Ds secondary encouraged us to label everything, so I did and so far have only lost one rugby sock!

fab thanks QueenofCBA, will look at them then

@nonicknameseemsavailable I love ours! Same stamp and cushion/ink still going strong after 4 years. Very durable on clothes, ok on plastic but can be redone easily.

Please label everything, particularly PE kit. I run the second uniform for our PTA, and we make an absolute fortune out of lost & unnamed PE kit. If it is unnamed, it can't be returned, and therefore goes straight to our PTA stocks. Best recent money maker has been a newly introduced sports jacket, cost £55 (!!!), we sell 2nd hand for £30 (mostly back to the parents whose DC's lost it in the first place!).

QueenofCBA - the stamps are good then?

@TheFirstOHN yes of course. Please everyone do label your stuff - I certainly still do. But there is no guarantee that things will not disappear and as you can tell I felt particularly bitter about the glasses that were only 2 months old and which my scatterbrained daughter needs to see anything in class, but hates to wear anywhere else.

I used to try to reunite items left in my classroom with their owners, using the seating plan if necessary!

I recall once giving his expensive black jacket back to one lad after I had worked out it could only be his...he was delighted and said his mum had been going to kill him!

If things were named it would obviously be easier...

In our school the 'Lost Property Department' is basically a huge flip-top bin. Very little gets returned to the pupil once it has made its way into the lost property bin. Office staff ate far too busy. If a pupil goes to Lost Property they are allowed to rummage for their item. But if it's been more than a week or two since they lost it, it will be so far in that there's not much hope . A few times a year, the PTA empty it. Anything halfway decent goes to their second hand stall. At the end of the year anything left in the bin is properly binned (or recycled). If a pupil finds their item on the PTA stall, they can have it back on proof of ID that matches the label on the item.

Please god label uniform. I find bags, pencil cases and items of clothing every bloody week. If any of it was named, all could be returned. At best the pe tshirts sometimes have the initials embroidered on.

Do not complain if uniform goes missing that isnt labelled as it is probably in a classroom somewhere waiting for the child to retrace their steps, or in lost property.

BrexitBirgit

Name labels don't stop things disappearing in the way you describe.

When things turn up in the lost property department (as they do in almost unmanageable amounts), name labels make the difference in whether the item can realistically be reunited with the child.

Forgot to say: I'm nearly on first name terms with the lost property lady now , as is my daughter once she picked up the courage to go herself. I had one success retrieving a uniform jumper, but non-uniform and PE items remain quite elusive....

Ha ha Labels or none it all goes walking, including two raincoats inside 3 months and a pair of prescription glasses. Optician thought someone might have kept them as a 'fashion item'. Ok so DD is prone to leaving things behind (she's no longer taking a coat to school) but even labels are no guarantee the things resurface. At least not at our school

The school lost property lady was well impressed when I phoned about a lost and named winter coat. Naming everything makes everybody’s life so much easier.
Our stamptastic stamp has been going strong for 4 years now. Relatively uncommon surname only so used for both dc.

Cross-posted with Eastpoint

And (when it gets to that stage) the files containing their GCSE or A-level notes and any Art sketchbooks / portfolios. You'd be surprised how many of these get handed in with no name on them anywhere.

Definitely label pencil cases & calculators. And why don’t children write their names on homework diaries or in folders anymore? Another Lost Property volunteer.

yes or write name on the clothes tags. My tip is to buy a PE bag which is not black - or has some kind of bright trim on it. So many kids have standard black PE bags and they just get lost because kids don't recognise theirs. Same with pencil case - don't get a black one.

I just said to DS today year 8 that he's been the entire hyear with the same PE kit it's a huge milestone in his development... joking obviously but really they lose so much stuff the first year.

I use a laundry marker to write on the lable

Don’t forget things like calculators, key purse, water bottle, umbrella .

Another one with the glamorous job of lost property. Hundreds of pounds of ne uniform (we'd just introduced it) without labels. Not to mention the Barbour jackets, Nike and adidas hoodies and other high end bits. Label everything!

We first check the obvious places like the collar/ waistband and then the on or around the label where the washing instructions are. We don't have times to be searching every garment for obscurely located nametapes.

Printed nametapes are best (sewn, ironed or adhered). The little button things are also fine. If the name is handwritten, it needs to be easily legible and not faded out of existence which can happen with permanent marker eventually.

Full name is best. Surname and first initial is OK but might only narrow it down to 5 children.

Label everything that they can take off or leave behind somewhere by accident (unless it's a low cost item you don't mind replacing)

Not least because they will borrow things from each other (often but not always with prior knowledge and consent). So when a labelled alien item turns up in your home, you can do something about returning it (even if that is limited to nagging your own DC)

Yup. Label everything if you want any chance of it getting back to your DC via the tutor / lost property system. I label pritt sticks and sellotape too.

(Though that still didn't stop bits of DD2's PE kit disappearing never to be found in the first term of y7.)

You don't need to name everything - only the items you'd want to get back if she loses them.

At secondary school, the likelihood of her being reunited with unnamed lost school uniform or PE kit is less than 5%.

I coordinated lost property at a secondary school until last year (when I was thankfully able to pass the role on to someone else).