to have a bit of a rant about people who steal school uniform

[Kiriwawa]

Yes, I know it's dull and it's been done before.

But I'm just bloody annoyed this evening (doing end of term washing in a slatternly way).

DS has SEN. He's a bit shit at remembering to dress himself properly after PE so quite often comes out without his jumper on. Usually, I realise, we go back and find it and all is well. Because he forgets to put stuff on a lot, we get to root around in lockers and in the school hall and anywhere else he might have left something.

If it's not in the school, it stands to reason that another child has taken it home. So it should come back really shouldn't it, but it bloody doesn't. Last term he had stolen lost 1 jumper. This term, it's 1 jumper and 1 fleece. That's about £40 worth of kit.

I sew nametags in the back of all his clothes and I sew them round all sides. They don't fall out. I can understand that you don't necessarily look at every single item of clothing every week but at the end of term, you surely realise if your child has an extra jumper? Or a frigging fleece which costs £18?

So AIBU to think some parents are thieving fucking bastards? :mad:

[ElsieMc]

yanbu, it is so annoying. Always the new ones go missing. Some of parents advised me to get new ones from ASDA - they don't have the badges on but are the right colour and the school are happy with this. I was told they had resorted to this because they did not get stolen. Another way round it was for those leaving school to hand their sweaters to other parents so then you are not too bothered if they go missing.

My GS came home in the wrong trousers one day and I returned them to the rightful owner next day. However, another mum insisted my GS was now wearing her son's. I simply couldn't get my head round how my GS had ended up with no pants!

[Kiriwawa]

thebody - that's a bloody good point and one I hadn't even thought of. One of my friend's DDs is at a school where there's no uniform and she has complained to me about her DD losing hairclips. It's never occurred to me that actually, her DD doesn't lose/have nicked jumpers and fleeces!

And I never wore a school uniform and I don't think I ever lost anything at school (I may have to doublecheck that assertion with my mum).

Certainly on non-uniform days, DS comes home wearing the clothes he went in wearing, despite the fact that none of them are labelled

[Changebagsandgladrags]

DS came home with a jumper two sizes too big. Not labelled, but I had an idea who it belonged to. I asked the mum if her son had brought home my son's jumper,his is labelled. Nope.

But her son was in a jumper two sizes too small. I just held on to the jumper...

[Spottyblancmange]

The worst I've had was at DD's previous school. A girl in her class was notorious for taking other people's uniforms (and her parents for encouraging it). Her elder sister had the same first name as DD, so her stuff was seen as extra fair game because they could claim "Well it says Jane here look, it's been passed down" and conveniently ignore that it had a different last name. Once the girl even accused DD of having stolen her jumper and writing our last name in. Despite the fact as well as being written on the label there was a printed label sewn in the collar and waistband.

[thebody]

Yes agree op but how many posters blindly support school uniforms so all of the children look the same and wear the same clothes.

Bloody madness.

As a TA and a parent this drives me bloody dotty.

I have many parents raging that expensive uniform items have gone missing and expect me to magic them up.. Sorry can't.

Non uniform days are exquisite. Children know and recognise their own clothes and don't loose anything.

This problem is our own stupid faults for clinging onto this absurdity.

[greenfolder]

At all the schools my 3 dds have been to there is a rule that stuff only ends up in the property box if it is unamedm , if it has a name it is passed to class teacher or form tutor to give back. Of course this will not stop students deliberately nicking stuff but it cuts down on people rakinh through lost property for good stuff and cutting out labels.

[teacherandguideleader]

Lottieandmia - I physically couldn't make the girl take her shirt off. Of course I referred it on to someone else, but she still refused to take the shirt off. Schools cannot force a child to remove clothing. She was punished for refusal to follow instructions, it just didn't get the shirt back.

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Hatti, we fixed the goggle thing. DS learned to like swedes. Not only are they really cheap but most kids don't like them. Also we bought red ones with a yellow bungee strap, quite unique and everyone knew they were my son's. Added bonuses were that they leak less and I could easily tell which kid was mine on the blocks from 30m away when they all had blond shaggy hair and matching team suits.

[Naysa]

Mymum got so sick of my sister's PE polo shirt going missing when she was in primary that she took a fabic marker and wrote her name on the back in two inch high letters, like a football shirt. It never went missing again.

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

The ONLY way to ensure you keep the stuff you bought is to permanently deface the outside of the clothing with a name or initials. Its shite, and means that its harder to 'hand me down' or pass stuff on, but when you repeatedly lose stuff theres no other answer.
Alternatively, our primary school used to sell lost property and donated items at the summer fete. It was a chance to buy logoed items at a very small price, and help the school at the same time. Its much less painful to lose second hand things that cost £2 a pop.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

laqueen have you spoken to the head? I mean you expect the odd mix up but your situation takes the piss!

[Hattifattner]

Oh and dont get me started on swim kit! DS has lost water bottles by the box load, snorkels x 2 (£24 a pop); two pullbuoys (c. £10 each), 2 sets of hand paddles (£18) 3 or 4 swim suits (around £15 each), and heaven knows how many goggles (about one set each term, c. £15). Everything is marked in permanent marker. None of it ever comes home. ANd every parent says the same. The pool doesnt have them in lost property, so where do they go?

Most of the families that swim competitively have children in private schools, so they are not short of a bob or two. ANd yet stuff goes missing all the time......

[Hattifattner]

when my DD was at jUniors, she lost 3 cardigans in a the first term. All with sewn in lables. I was rummaging through the (huge) lost property box(es) and another mum said "Oh just take one in her size, and cut out the label. EVryone else does it...."

The school is in an elite area of very affluent professional families.

DS2 wears his brothers shiney hand-me-downs, with tatty cuffs. Strangely, he never loses his jumpers....

[Alligatorpie]

I teach reception (international school overseas) and regularly send notices home reminding parents to label uniforms. But, I use a purple permanent marker for those who forget. Stuff still goes missing.

I occasionally check the lost and found, the number of labelled clothing is astonishing. I think because the matrons mostly can't read English, or parents with write only a first name (I had 3 Omar's in my class, can't imagine how many are in the whole school) it is difficult to return stuff to the owner. I have never seen a parent in there.

Dd1 regularly loses expensive water bottles and hoodies. Most of it doesn't come back. Thankfully the weather means we are in tshirts for the rest of the year. They don't change for PE so its pretty hard to lose a tshirt.

[lottieandmia]

I think it's disgusting that so many parents apparently think it's ok to steal the uniform of another child. What kind of example are they setting? Is it any wonder we end up with young people who think it's ok to raid shops like they did in the riots?

I think I am lucky in that at my younger dd's school clothes are not stolen (to my knowledge) - things do get mixed up but we always get them back a matter of days later. And I name everything. My older dd had a coat go missing which we eventually got back as I said, but she had a 1:1 to check where her stuff was all the time. It makes me wonder what else would have gone missing had she not had the 1:1.

[IAmLouisWalsh]

DS has his initials on the front of his jumper under the logo. Costs an extra £2 but bloody worth it as you can tell straight away it is his!

[motherhen1949]

My ds is in high school but i do know in primay schools some parents use the lost proptery box as a sopping centre as a replacement for actually buying frigging uniform

[motherhen1949]

Yanbu i have taken to writing ds name on the front of his football boot in black permant pen bevause they were getting nicked that often

Also wrote his name in large letters on the outside of his pe shirt and the teaher had a frigging cheak to complain i made it very clear i cant afford to keep replacing pe kit to its either name of the frong or no kit


It really pisses me off that parents also dont question were the hell there children got the football boots ftom they clearly didnt buy

[Doodyanna]

Our head puts lost property in the school newsletter 'so and so has lost their sweater, has wrong trousers, someone has rode home on their scooter etc please can all parents check they haven't got it by mistake and please return' she also updates to say they have it back it maybe pricks the conscience of those who have secret hoards of other people stuff. We have to have the kids initials on the front of the school jumper just under the logo and that works but as for everything else its a pia and very expensive replacing kit so yanbu!

[insanityscratching]

When in infants dd had many sweaters/ cardigans go missing even though labelled. Now in juniors she hasn't lost any at all. I don't think it's a coincidence that she is the smallest in the school and so still wearing infant sizes and the reason why hers don't go missing any more because she is no less forgetful.

[skyebluesapphire]

YANBU - My DD is in Reception class and so far she has lost 1 sweatshirt and 2 cardis. The cardis were only £3 at Asda, but the sweatshirt has the logo on and costs around £8 a time. I bought her two for 50p each in the summer fete, so not too bad, but if I had paid £8, I would be livid.

I use a system called Attachatag, which gives you a little gadget and buttons with the childs name on that you attach to the clothes labels. They are very distinctive and cant be missed, yet somebody has that sweatshirt.

Its not a question of losing things. If the kids get hot, they have to all put their jumpers in the jumper box. so if at the end of the day a sweatshirt goes missing, it means that a child who didnt wear one in, has gone home wearing one.

I asked for a bit to go in the school newsletter asking parents to check all uniform over the holidays and the teacher said it wasnt necessary. Guess what was in the same newsletter - a note from the headteacher saying that children are coming to school not in uniform! I wonder why that is?!!!

A local school embroiders the childs name on the front of their jumper, but of course then it cant be handed down.

I do think it is theft, if you are taking somebody else's clothes. A comment earlier on was shocking, to think that somebody can actually knowingly steal clothes by actually taking them and removing the labels :( Its not finders keepers, she should hand the stuff to the teacher.