to think the sodding school should replace the sodding PE kit

[dontknowwhatnametopick]

My DS started school in the summer and parents were asked to supply a PE kit in the first week. In the registration days we were also told that the PE kit would stay in school to save kids forgetting to bring them PE days etc etc.

Got a post it note in DS's book bag 2/3 weeks ago saying that he had no trainers in his PE bag, I spoke to teacher and pointed out that they must be somewhere as my DS has not brought them home, teacher said she would check again and if she didnt come across them she would let me know. Time passed I forgot about it until DS pipes up last night that he has NO PE kit at all, its all gone!

I have a number of mums from the school on my twitter so had kindly tweeted them to ask them to check their kids bags to see if they had mistakeingly took my DS's things, now the school he attends have their own twitter account to remind us of dates etc, well my DS's teacher runs this account so I get a private message from her saying "I told you a number of weeks ago that DS has no trainers and I know nothing about the PE kit as I dont take the class for PE, if its important please come into school and check for yourself"

Now I know the tweets I had send would have been seen by her as we all follow the school, I reminded her of the convo we had about the trainers and I had pointed out that unless the full PE kit had grew legs and took themselves out of school then they must be there!! She kept saying I dont take PE so I dont know and its maybe best if I just replace the whole PE kit.

Now AIBU to think that she should sod the sodding hell off, stop sending me private messages and that the school should take some sodding responsibilty?!

YANBU.

Mistakes happen and P.E. kit gets lost.

However, 4 and 5 year olds need a clear system to ensure that they don't loose P.E. kit. In the same way, at home you try to encourage your child to be as independent as possible, but if they turned up without P.E. kit at the beginning of term and you just said "I assumed he put it way at the end of last term but he seems to have lost it", the school would be very unimpressed.

YANBU on the basis that saying a "I don't take that class" is such a rubbish excuse.

I don't think you will get them to pay for the kit, but you are definitely within your rights to ask them to explain what steps they are taking to prevent this from happening again, E.g having a kit check routine at the end of every p.e. lesson and ensuring that there is adequate space for every child to hang their P.E. bag on their peg.

my daughters school seems to think that writing your childs name on the label of their clothes stops them from getting lost/stolen

Oh, missed the fact that the kit mysteriously appeared.

I would still want to know what they are doing to improve organisation after P.E. lessons.

Well I would be double checking what the rule is on lending it out. I know that a large number of schools will lend out a child's pe kits to a child in another class if they haven't got one. This happens frequently as you always get one of two children who never ever bring kit and to enable them to do pe you sent them next door and the TA roots around to find kit and plimsoles/trainers that fit. This could well be what is happening in your school, OP.

Occasionally a child will mention it to the parent as some kids don't like other children wearing their stuff(can't blame them) and the parents comes in and state categorically that they do not want their. Child's kit lent out. That's fine and teachers them just rummage through the kits of children whose parents haven't complained.

Check if this happens because they may be in another class entirely.

Do you mean that the whole bag of kit has disappeared? Or that you have the bag, but it is empty?

It's been found, MrsCake.

did the trainers show up too?

the whole kit went missing, the bag was there just no kit/trainers and when i say trainers I mean the cheap plimsoles.

That is weird. But I'm glad it's been found.

Where did the child put the items when he took them off? Teach him to look after his things, why should the school be responsible?

When you see thirty small kids changing into kit - and putting on each others jumpers, shoes, stuffing any item of clothing in their general vicinity into their kit bag, abandoning articles of clothing in the gym, on other kids' chairs and in the hallway when they get distracted - it's amazing that any child manages to retain a full kit at all. It's just not possible to individually check and monitor every child only puts on their own clothes and puts their own clothes into their bag and brings back every item they took down to the hall with them. Not if we plan on doing anything else that day. (And I want some device that keeps the other 29 standing still not exchanging kit while I check them one by one). Most schools try hard to using things like chair bases or trays or boxes, but kids are kids

The only thing that might help is to check your child's PE kit on their peg after a PE day and to ask all parents to check the name labels on their children's clothes when they do the washing as they often accidentally swap clothes.

You said you tweeted a mum and the teacher answered not by direct message, is that right? How did the teacher know you had asked the question?

bonkers...I teach my DS very well on how to look after his things and he does this very well, I would think it was him misplacing it if it was one item but its the whole bloody thing and when I question the deputy head its suddenly turns up!

A lot of the schools parents follow the schools twitter page and the school has followed some of us parents so anyonw who follows you can see when you have tweeted someone

I know how twitter works. If you asked the question in public I was wondering why you were surprised it was answered in public

This once happened to me. Ds was 6 and we were not encouraged to come into the classrooms so I had not been aware it was missing. After presenting the deputy head with a bill for £60 (the cost of replacement), it was then found on another peg.

I actually don't think they had ever looked for it, just asked ds to look.

It isn't possible for a teacher with 30 children and a v limited amount of time either side of a PE lesson to monitor this although I know how frustrating it must be for things to go missing.

Exactly this.
Could you ensure that 30 4 year olds were all putting their kit in their bag and on a peg at the same time as doing up buttons, turning tights, jumpers, socks and trousers the right way round and putting on shoes?

Very often stuff turns up in other children's bags.

However, the way she spoke to you via Twitter was not on.

Yes teachers should help dress and undress children on a 1:1 basis, then fold and pack their clothes away and personally hang all the gym bags up on the correct pegs. This should be supervised at all times by members of the management team because the school must be accountable. It won't be time consuming or detrimental to the education of the children at all.

But on a serious note....the use of Twitter is bang out of order. I find that really peculiar.

Yes teachers should help dress and undress children on a 1:1 basis, then fold and pack their clothes away and personally hang all the gym bags up on the correct pegs.
Even if they are not in the room at the time.

I think it is very possible for a teacher to teach children a routine for looking after their books/p.e. kit/the school hamster/registration/assembly/what happens in the lunch hall/how to put the gym or gardening equipment away. It might take the whole P.E. lesson to teach it the first time and you would certainly have to ensure that the environment was set up to make it more likely than not that each child would follow instructions.

I am willing to believe that teachers don't always have the freedom to spend time teaching children to organise themselves and do practical tasks and they have limited control of the school building. However, I don't accept that it is not possible. About 50% of the montessori method is based on teaching 4 and 5 year olds to do simple tasks in a methodical way so that they can do them by themselves.

If I saw thirty 4 year olds flinging their clothes around and stuffing their clothes into each other's bags, I would think that, for whatever reason, nobody had taught them to do anything different. I don't believe that every reception P.E lesson in the UK ends in chaos.

You are absolutely right merry mouse and even the most organised 4 and 5 year olds will still sometimes find that their things have become mixed up with another child's belongings or lost. A good teacher will break down "getting ready" into a lots of smaller manageable tasks that will minimise confusion and allow the children to be successfully independent.

In the case of the op we have no idea what teaching has been done in advance of the missing gym things.

I would be tempted to tell her just as arsily that you don't take them for pe or anything else to do with school either. So you know even less than her obviously. Childish but true...

When my DCs were at primary school it was expected in the lower part of the school that the kit was left until half term. I am bit anal about only wearing something once and then washing it so they brought it home all the time. It was also easier to keep track of

merrymouse has it spot on.