To keep a jumper from lost property

[smokinaces]

which isnt ours?

There is a box of lost property at DS's school, most of which has been in there since before the Summer. Today he lost yet another jumper - somehow named ones go missing yet unnamed ones end up in lost property for months on end. There was no way he could come home from school with no jumper (he'd taken it off for the school play) so I borrowed one from Lost Property (as seen by the after school club team).

Its an obviously old one (but not tatty) Logo'd (ours was a M&S own brand one) with no name - and a size bigger than DS's current Logo'd one, which he's outgrowing.

Would IBU to keep it? It has been in there for months, it has no name or marks, though is well washed. Would it be cheeky of me to wash it and name it and adopt it?

Not unreasonable, but dishonest. Why not go to the school office and say 'This has been in the LP for months, ours has gone missing, can I have this and make a small donation to school funds'?

I've done it, v similar circumstances.

our old headmistress used to go through the lost property at the end of term and hand out stuff in appropriate sizes to children!

Just make a donation to the pta funds if you feel guilty! Someone has your jumper. and has probably cut out the name label

Fairy - you're right. It is a bit dishonest. Probably the only thing I've done which is. The rationale is that if someone has not named their jumper, and it has been there for ages (in my case, lots of jumpers get left after year 6 s leave) then it's OK.
But then if you ask the school office then you are making a karmic recompense, but not one to the person who lost the other jumper, IYSWIM

What fairy said...
...but yes YABU, regardless of how long its been there, it's essentially theft. And do you know for sure it's been there all this time? When my DS was in year 2, his (named but not obviously so) jumper landed in lost property on a daily basis as he would wander off and leave it everywhere. I would have been horrified if, on my daily trek to the lost property bin, it wasn't there because someone had taken a shine to it because it had "been there for months"
Also, this is quite an emotive issue for some people and you may not get the replies you want

I am gutted because I swapped DS's hat today for his very expensive one (no name) and it has gone missing :( I really hope it's there tomorrow or I shall be heartbroken. And if I see any other child seeing it in this small town I will know it's mine so watch out

Sorry, just venting there. How do you know it's 'obviously old' and 'been in there for months'?

Having said that, make a donation to PTFA and it's a fair swap I reckon :)

I don't think you'll go to hell ;-)

Its obviously old as its the old material, and the box we got it from (with the after school staff with us) is the old lost property - the stuff that has been around for ages and gets put out the front of the school at the end of every term. The newer stuff tends to go in a big bin down at the front end of the school (where we normally find DS's stuff!)

His school teacher did give him a spare jumper today to wear, but it was too small for him. So I put that one back and grabbed this one. I purposely went through the box and got one with no hint of name, and clearly old - there were some obviously new ones in there that I left on purpose.

When I was at school the staff used to give me one of the old lost property jumpers when mine was knackered, they saw it a way to get rid of the mounting pile!

I do donate to the PTA in both time and money already. I might mention to the PTA about selling lost property (stuff thats been missing 2-3 terms plus and no name, no one claiming when it goes out the front at pick up for a week) for a token price - there are some of us on very limited budgets, and if its done right it could be a good way to clear the stuff and raise a little funds.

Ah I dont know. I will wash it and let him wear it until his turns up (cant afford to replace it) but not name it I think. Then he's simply borrowing it as the teacher suggested and we've not claimed it.

I think it's OK. After all, one of your jumpers is lost in the school - you are only replacing it with one that has been there a while.

In our school, when people lose jumpers, the teachers give them one from lost property, knowing full well it belongs to someone else (not knowing who though, this is only done with unnamed jumpers).

Also I think that whoever couldn't be bothered to name their child's jumper (knowing that hundreds of kids wear the same jumper) which ended up in lost property has no right to be upset over losing it.

Our school secreatry actively encourages this. If a named jumper goes missing and it doesn't turn up, she will tell us to take an un named jumper out of lost property because there are always loads of them.

I don't see a problem with it. If you lose a jumper, it should have been named, and it will get returned to your child if it is. If not, then you go into school and check the lost property box yourself. If you don't, then your jumper is fair game. At the end of each year, the school still ends up with loads of jumpers to send to Africa or wherever.

I've done it. I didn't see the point in buying another new jumper when there were about 30 almost new jumpers sitting around in the school office. Obviously I'd never take one that was labelled. And I'd probably have felt differently if there had only been a few jumpers in lost property....but a musty box full of thirty odd jumpers that were never going to make it back to their owners...

YANBU.

I work in a school. If it is not named, it will probably not be claimed and will end up in the charity shop at Christmas anyway.

I have advised DS to do this, but sadly there were only really scratty jumpers in the box. Which lead me to believe the nice jumpers had already been taken.

No name = no return. Which is why I use sew in name tapes and permanent marker on labels on everything I give a damn about.