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?

Well that's a new one to me - people stealing school clothes . As a teacher of older children I did see it as their responsibility but usually did a collection and return of jumpers most days.

PFB starts school in Sept. I've been told to get some matching thread and machine sew a pattern onto a noticeable place on each item. So if something goes missing I can watch the children leave the classroom and see from a distance who has picked up DD cardigan.

We use the mynametag tags as well and they work reasonably well. DD is pretty forgetful, goes to a non-uniform school (they have an optional sweatshirt/zippy hoody which some wear sometimes), and then onto creche, so all sorts get worn in and all sorts get left behind. And we're not always sure what was left where.

We have generally gotten most things back. OCcasionally things take a few weeks to surface again, and I/au pair/DH regularly check the "lost property" tables. Apart from anyone being free to rummage during term, the head puts LP in the yard before school for a week or so before the end of terms - with plenty of warnings that all LP left at end of term goes to charity. And DD's teacher and TA are pretty good at recognising who owns what (lots of tracksuits for DD generally) and trying to get them back into bags before having to send them to LP (senior infants).

But the odd thing has still disappeared without trace, usually something that DD actually likes. She got a very "New York Gansta" style tracksuit bottoms from SIL trip to US, which disappeared on loan to a friend (accident in the house) and "couldn't be found" in their laundry. Strange thing was they never appeared on the child either - just into thin air! (And yes, I do trust the mum - they just have chaotic house). DD was upset about those on and off when she remembered them for 6 months (I just grabbed the first clean pair of trousers and we were low on options at the time).

We had been used to writing DD's name from creche all along - but the pain about the nametags is that they don't come off easily. So lil cousins could happily take her smaller things and effectively be none the wiser - but all things worn since starting school have been much more clearly "hers" so cousins aren't as keen to accept, and I am less inclined to drop into charity collections locally.

I came to the conclusion that some parents would take others' jumpers and either (i) throw tyem away or (ii) change the names in them. I couldn't see how things could go missing otherwise in what was a closed system.

And then i realised that all parents were finding the same thing, so the only rational explanation is goblins who steal school jumpers :)

The attitude of schools to their pupils property stinks.

We wouldn't have dreamt of borrowing, hiding or stealing someone else's belongings because from reception we knew we wouldn't get away with it.

Our parents had no spare money and the trouble if things had gone missing would have been enormous.

Today clothes are so much cheaper, and DCs have so many more that a terribly casual attitude has developed.

DD1 had a dreadful time in Y4 because her lunch boxs kept vanishing, only when the teacher found one in the boys loo and one in the darkest reassess of the IT room did the teacher believe she hadn't lost them.

my ds is always coming home with other peoples clothes and since there are no clothes left behind at school (i have asked many times) i assume he has swapped with someone else after PE by accident or something. His jumpers are always fairly new (as i have to replace them so often!) the ones he comes home in look about 3 years old and the last one had two large holes in the sleeve where someone had been sucking it. I was them I take them back and wait for someone to return his jumpers with his name clearly sewn in - but no one ever does.

Rabbitee - the most recent one was left on the field, the other two were on her peg. She wasn't ever terribly responsible for her belongings but is much better now she understands the value of money.

I remember this happening to my DC in primary and it got worse over the years'. someone took my son's new birthday present football boots off his peg. I think it is awful when things which are named are stolen especially if they were left on her peg

I'll just be happy to take the right child home at the end of the school day.(doolally mother) . I was always losing stuff at school, so I am expecting my daughter to be the same. Sigh.

I don't expect her teacher to keep track of her things, I never mentions the teacher in any of this. Heaven knows she has enough on her plate.

All DDs clothes and belongings are labelled, even her flipping swimming towel, which is a ratty old thing, only any good for being stood on in the changing rooms!

But I also expect that the things on her peg will not move of their own accord and never return, especially when she's being encouraged to leave her things there because it's a 'safe' place and will allegedly minimise this sort of loss!

I cannot believe some people are seriously suggesting that the school should be billed for items your children have lost! Just today, I had a child in my class say 'My mum said you've got to buy me some new pumps' - the child had lost them for the umpteenth time, and apparently his mum had 'already bought too many'! The mother did look suitably shamefaced when I presented aforementioned pumps to her at the end of the day (found in lost property), with the suggestion that she might write his name in them!

If children mislay things at school I'm more than happy to have a quick look, keep an eye out, ask other children if they've seen the item and to check their own pegs and trays, or for parents to come in and look themselves. However, I already have far too much to do in a day (just, you know, unimportant things like teaching children to read and write), and if parents can't even be bothered to put names in things and/or teach their children to be less careless, there's little else I can do!

My son swims and his teammates frequently purloin someone else's team suits if theirs go missing. I started sharpieing inside in really big letters but that didn't work because noone could tell once the suit was on so I embroidered his name on the hip of his suit so I could see if someone else was wearing it. It worked so I did the same on the back hip of shirts and the sleeve cuff. He hasn't had anything taken since because the kids know his are labelled that way.

Gazzalw - 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 erm.....BECAUSE WE'RE BUSY EDUCATING YOUR CHILD?

You're right - I am disinterested. I spend enough of the day picking up jumpers/cardigans which have just been abandoned (most actually with no name in) but regardless of that, why don't you just teach your child some responsibility? When I was at school, I never lost any item of clothing, because I knew that my parents couldn't afford to replace them. I was extremely responsible and looked after things.

Kids in my class don't respect/look after anything. It's all down to a lack of general manners. Also probably a result of being part of a generation where things are just given to them all the time. ( on average, my children must ruin about 4 pritt sticks a week through leaving the lids off, and I probably bin about 10 wipeboard pens a week for the same reason) I might start charging parents for these resources! ;)

OP - do you honestly believe that your daughter plays no blame in this at all? A good old-fashioned bollocking telling off might stop her from losing her uniform!

labelling is a load of old bollocks although i still do it. i have been told by two different women in a casual comment how they take (i kid you not) the best/first ie cardigan in the lost & found box that they come across & keep it regardless if there is a name tag in it. i was speechless tbh, fucking cheek (& one of the women that said this is really wealthy)

itdoes - i agree, my dd has a laid back attitude towards losing items at school which really pisses me off. i don't smack and have had to try various means to really scare her/make her take me seriously about the repercussions if she keeps leaving her cardigans behind, i don't like to threaten her, the best one is that i will confiscate her favourite teddy that she still likes to take to bed with her....i doubt i will have that to hang over her for much longer though although she hasn't lost a cardy for a while..

Fwiw I found labelling stuff on the outside so no one else could easily "re-purpose" it did help quite a bit.

I now pay extra to have Ds name under the logo that way it always gets returned

Yep, our clock room pegs were designed for coats. Not coats, cardigans, PE bags, lunch bags and ruck sacks.

Fallen items are randomly re-pegged or stuffed on the bench. Snow is a nightmare, gloves, scarves and hats rain down and are kicked about on the wet floor.

Itdoesnthurttohavemanners
No, but clearly you don't have any respect for your parents.

You think we don't try to get DCs to look after their things, we do!
BUT unless teachers take an interest in the general attitude to other people's property and the state of the clock rooms the pupils aren't going to.

It takes on second to say pick that up, 2 seconds to say please take that to lost property and no teaching time at all to say have you got everything before the pupils leave the classroom.

You know the scatty ones, Please help us to help you by noticing 7 waterbottles by the sink.

You are not teaching responsibility by not reminding them, you are causing needless irritation.

They will learn at secondary, even DD1 has, but primary children are children.
DD2 is fantastically organised, she can pack for camp no bother, but when chatting to her friends she would forget her head.

Teaching respect for your own and other people's property is educating our children, call it PHSE if you like. It would be a lot more useful than most of that.

Can't believe some of the ignorant comments on this thread.

Teachers DO remind pupils to take care of their belongings, remember to take things home etc, but things get lost and left behind anyway.

I honestly couldn't count the number of times I remind my children to do these things.

Do you have any idea how many hundreds of items of clothing you are expecting us to be responsible for every day?