to be fed up with named cardigans still walking off?

[MrsFruitcake]

3rd cardi DD has managed to lose in as many months, including one with the school logo which cost me £18. All three were clearly labelled with her name, on both the inside neck and tag.

None have turned up at school again and they don't seem overly bothered - teacher just told her to keep looking and told me that they weren't there. Two were taken off her peg and the other was picked up on the school field but never made it's way back to her.

So where are they? I'll wager that the labels have now been removed and someone else is using them. No other explanation is there?

Oh dear! As you say that you "wager that the labels have now been removed," I guess that you sewed in the labels by the collar so that they were easily visible by any child? I've always thought that's why the DC have never lost a single item of clothing at school. That and the threat of my wrath.....
How old is she? Have you checked the lost property yourself?

Yes, sewn in at the collar and tag. Takes forever! Haven't been to check lost property, may have to I suppose. She has every day for two weeks though. DD is eight and a half.

Another vote for checking lost property yourself. Usually you will find any number of cardigans in there.

I had this exact rant with my DH yesterday when DD's 2 week old cardigan went missing, (the one we bought after her 2nd jumper since sept was stolen) I even sharpied her name on the inside of the actual cardigan too.. I've been naughty tho and took one out of lost property to replace it..

Yes, go and check yourself - countless jumpers of DC's friends have turned up when their mums went to check!
Has she got a track record on losing stuff or is this unusual for her?

How annoying. My DD has lost her PE shirt which actually has her name embroidered on the front! (All their PE kit is similarly marked)

But please blame the unscrupulous parents who don't return lost property or remove labels. Teachers have enough to do without parents ranting at them for lost cardigans. Apart from looking in the classroom and asking the pupils to keep an eye out for it, there is very little they can do if a jumper can't be found.

It's frustrating. Every expensive item of clothing I buy and goes to daycare goes missing here too. The cheap stuff never.

Oh yes....school makes a huge issue about labelling stuff and our DCs clothes are all cash labelled in obvious places. Sadly if a parent wants to purloin an ill-gotten school item nothing will deter them!

DS lost a pair of brand new trousers in Year 1 or 2 - they clearly had a name tape in them - think it was a three way confusion twixt boys but we never did find the missing trousers.

DW has considered asking the school to stump up the money - they are the ones who make such a huge issue about naming clothes but they don't have a bottom line on what should happen if one has adhered to their rules on named clothes!

We've never done it but DW thinks one should secretly stitch a thread in some semi-visible place as a 'code' that can be used to identify a 'lost' item at a thousand paces.

It is a 'grey' area really - personally I don't see why the teachers or TAs couldn't do random audits after PE or something but they seem disinterested.

Sure if we started billing the schools for lost items they might change their attitude to helping to recover lost property!

It drives me insane, dd's brand new school purchased £18.00 sweatshirt was taken after only two days! Every year is the same.

I have told my dd's now that if the cardigans they have now go missing i will send them in in a non school cardigan and will tell the head that i am not prepared to replace them anymore.

Our school constantly reminds us everything must be named and ours all is but no one cares when they are taken.

DD is crap at remembering her cardi... we have gone through far too many - i name tag the colour & sharpied the inside sleeve with her name, and if she has lost one i get he to check at PE time that no one else has 'accidentially' picked up hers.. i get quit a few back with the name tag removed......

when the twins go i will just duct tape them into the jumpers ;)

DD is notoriously scatter brained. I wrote her name across the back of her school cardigan (inside obviously).
It has never gone walkabout.

Don't give up hope. My DD lost one on the first day back in September it turned up on her peg this week. No explanation as to where it had been. The school had a thorough clean/sort out at Christmas so it must have been at home with another child.

Get a permanent fabric pen and write your DC's name on the inside collar/tag of the actual garment itself. As long as it's not very thin or light coloured though so it won't be seen from outside.

It just makes me wonder how hard up people really must be to feel okay about letting their child wear someone else's clothes.

The school runs a used uniform service I have bought from it in the past as her cardi went missing towards the end of the last summer term and I didn't want to pay lots for a new one - it was £3. Maybe I should ask the school to advertise the service a bit more?

DC's primary do a lost property table in the playground occasionally. There are loads of items that still go unclaimed!

FWIW I think some children are better at looking after their stuff than others. Difficult if your child is a clothes-loser.

In addition to labeling at the collar, my dsis used to sew another inside the sleeve. It helped get back her DSs new coat which the other child's cheeky bitch of a mother had taken the visible label out of!

I hate this too
And on the odd occasion mine come home with someone else's. I wash and iron it and send it back in quickly. I can only assume the other child has my child's item but I never see it back.

I would use marker pen in big letters. Then can't be removed.

Bigtilly that's not mug help for me though as my children get taxied in. I have to rely on other people and dd to make sure she keeps hold of herself. It was easier when ds1 went to the same school because I could ask him to look or ask her teacher.

I use the mynametags.con labels they sort of blend into the fabric and doubt they could be removed easily (plus they iron on do save time) ds has never lost any luckily but school are pretty good at making sure everyone brings them home each night.

I have an embroidery sewing machine and embroider a monogram into the bottom corner of shirts (where thy'll be tucked in) and the tops of socks (where they'll be under trousers), and onto other inconspicuous bits of kit.

You can also get an indelible stamp that you can use to just stamp the name and a postcode into the inside of your item.

(Boarding school paranoia and a forgetfull child meant that we had to go over-and-above Cash's tape)

gazzalw - do you seriously expect the teachers to give up teaching time to treat the children like crime suspects and search them? What do you propose, that the teacher goes around pulling up the children's jumpers and pulling down their trousers to look at the tags? I'd bet that would go down a storm with parents!

It's not the job of teachers to keep track of the children's clothes. Of course a teacher will pick up a stray piece of clothing and check the label or put it in lost property but it's not their job to check the thousands of items the children wear/bring with them to school every day.

I would advise parents to teach their children to be possessive of their things - too many children just throw their jumpers on the edge of the playing field and forget about them or leave them on the floor to be kicked around the place.

As someone who has frequently had to dive into school lost property collections (contained in 3 dustbins) I would strongly recommend taking a pair of dispoable gloves to wear for the job...

Also recommend sewn in label in visible place, also mark/initials/spot (with indelible pen) whatever on somewhere concealed eg back of label. And be prepared to spend a whole day/several evenings naming stuff.