or do the teachers have enough to do without returning lost property?

[Narnia72]

I'm a parent, just to state my "side".

The school have had enough of the overflowing lost property box, most of which is unlabelled uniform, with the odd lost glove and sock thrown in. They've therefore decided that the box should go, and have gone through the box and returned all labelled items to the relevant child. The unlabelled uniform has gone to the second hand uniform shop to sell (very cheaply, usually to struggling families), and the junk has been binned.

The school has decreed that from now on they won't keep a lost property box, but will put lost items into a box that can be checked through every Friday. Unclaimed, unlabelled items will then go to the second hand shop.

Parents are outraged at this, saying the school is stealing their uniform, and asking why the teachers aren't checking the box and returning labelled stuff to their rightful owners on a regular basis. There is a long rant on the school FB site about it, and parents are saying they're not "spending their hard-earned money if the school is going to throw the uniform out".

1. these people are not reading what is happening but
   
2. is this a reasonable thing to expect of the teachers? Surely the children are old enough/able enough to keep track of their things, and if they don't then it's really the child's fault.
   
   There are people ranting about missing (non-uniform) hats, and all sorts. How on earth are teachers expected to track those down? Now they are ranting about items that have gone missing in school and haven't made it into the lost property box. Should teachers be expected to scour the school and pegs for misappropriated items?
   
   I am tempted to post about special kinds of stupid people, but I thought I'd just check I'm not BU. Do your (state if it makes a difference) schools routinely return lost property?

[steppemum]

Theas - ds secondary is like that, all pe kit embroidered on front, costs £3 per item, but they never go missing and never get lost.

[steppemum]

we also get all the unnamed jumpers given to the PTA to sell.

[steppemum]

I helped out in school, and one day was helping to tidy the classroom. It was a warm day and all the kids had taken off their jumpers. there was a huge pile on the edge of the carpet. I sorted them.

28 jumpers

1 was named. (my dds!)

named one returned to child. The rest? Well what is a teacher supposed to do? 27 jumpers, most of them similar size and no identifying marks.

2 days later in playground a parent was moaning, so I had a bit of a go and told her about the 27 unmarked jumpers and how difficult was it to buy a pen and write your child's name in the jumper, and what was the teacher supposed to do? Be psychic?

So, no, no sympathy. Look in the box, name your clothes.

School secretary told me she had a parent who phoned up and shouted at her regularly about her child's missing coat. Every time the secretary asked if it was named 'No, I'm not spoiling a nice coat by writing in it.' Secretary pointed out that as it was an asda's coat, there were half a dozen of them in the school and without a name no-one could find it. Parent swore at her down the phone.
Repeat 6 weeks later, same parent, same coat.

[Theas18]

Maybe primary school jumpers shoukd be like our secondary PE kit, initials and surname embroidered on the front. Doesn't cost much to have done and as long as you stick to initials I don't reckon it increases the stranger danger rating ( not like a hair band with " billee - grace" on it might do )

I had dads initials surname and phone no on a hoody for £2.50 ( he has dementia).

I know it might double the cost a supermarket sweat shirt but but it makes it un pinch able and should never be lost.

[Narnia72]

Sorry to disappear and be unclear - it's a one form entry primary school.

The early years teachers are great at trying to keep kids and jumpers aligned, but it's lunchtime when most things go missing. They come across in jumpers (from a separate building) then take them off and forget them. However, the most irate poster was a mum of a year 4 kid.

I get that if there's a name in it, here is an expectation that it should be able to be returned to its rightful owner, but at this time of year when the school are finding 20 odd jumpers on the field at lunchtime, who should make the time to check all the tags?

I am considering suggesting that those who are so irate organise a rota between themselves to go in and do the sorting for the staff. Then they might appreciate the magnitude of the task.

The reason I'm involved is because I'm on the parent council and trying to improve communication between teachers and parents. It's not working atm!

[WankerDeAsalWipe]

DS2 (high school) lost his glasses (and his shoe laces and numerous other items) He checked and I checked numerous times to get them back - there was a pair of glasses but they weren't his so it cost me £80 to replace his ones. Presumably a child went through about a year of wearing the wrong glasses and never noticed that the prescription was probably different and that they didn't fit properly.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

We have a mum at our school who has apparently said that the reason her pfb's stuff goes missing is because other kids are jealous of her lovely stuff and steal it. I shit you not. I have seen said pfb on swimming trips etc and the little madam won't pick her clothes up if they sit at her feet. And the mum had the teacher write in the school newsletter that the pfb had lost a shoe and could everyone please look for it. She was moaning about another lost shoe last week and my friend emerged from the cloakroom with the shoe in her hand bemusedly saying 'but it was in the shoe caddy, with all the other shoes?'. Pfb's mum doesn't look very hard if she can claim that someone's nicked it.

[balletgirlmum]

I can see both points of view as a parent of two unorganised asd children who is unable to do Friday pick ups & a dh who is a teacher.

I think that if a labelled item of clothing is found it should be sent to the child's form room rather than being put in lost property in the first place.

Unlabelled items they should allow longer than a week. At ds's school we get an email roughly every half term saying that after x date all unclaimed items will be sent to the 2nd hand uniform/charity shop.

Pity poor dd who was given the end of term job of helping to sort lost property last term. There were several un-named boys dance belts (jock straps) in there!

[DisappointedOne]

Snapes I labelled every one of DD's socks.

[Greengardenpixie]

Oh and as a teacher myself i get sick of feeling its my responsiblity to safeguard 28 jumpers!

[Greengardenpixie]

I just cannot believe some of the good quality stuff that is just left abandoned and never claimed in the lost property! I mean good quality jackets and the parents never bother to even notice they are missing!!!!

[SnapesCapes]

I work in a reception class in a school. Probably 70% of stuff which comes in is NOT LABELLED. If you don't label it, how the heck are you ever going to get it back? Every single afternoon as soon as school finishes there are parents and children milling about saying "I've lost my cardigan again". Every day.

DS2 is about to start at my school in September. I've already bought fifty billion of those stupid labels with his name on and labelled everything in sight (including his underpants, because he insisted and I'm not one for picking a fight with a lunatic).

[TalcAndTurnips]

Lala - I've seen the same PE bag cycling through - lost-found-claimed-lost-found-claimed - around six times. It now goes off by itself to find its owner. When it is unsuccessful, it returns, climbs back into the cabinet and closes the door behind itself to lie and wait for retrieval.

I have also seen a mother, exasperated beyond belief; foaming spittle at the corners of the mouth - marching her son up to the cabinet and opening the door. She presses his face into the malodorous racks of clothing:


THERE IS YOUR BLOODY COAT I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE IN LOST PROPERTY YOU TOLD ME YOU'D LOOKED THERE YOU LYING TOAD THREE BLOODY WEEKS I'VE BEEN BLOODY WELL ASKING YOU TO LOOK WELL NO X-BOX FOR YOU THIS WEEK AND YOU'RE DOIN YOUR GEOGRAPHY AS SOON AS YOU GET IN YOU'RE NOT GOIN OUT WITH KIRK ON YOUR BIKES AFTER SCHOOL NO WAY JOSE

She then walks past the office with a cheery smile and an eye roll: "kids, eh? Shit 'em"


His coat didn't have a name in, by the way. I didn't feel it apt to point it out at that moment.

[Momagain1]

Thats how our school handles it.


lunch gear is thrown out at Christmas and end of year. non-uniform is donated at end of the year. The process is anmounced in class, mentioned in newsletters and texted multiple times per year, and daily the last two full weeks. And signs on doors and gates the last few days. And jani roams the playground interupting parents to tell them to go check lost property even if they dont think they need too.

Nevertheless, someone was furious last autumn evidently, they looked for ia coat that they knew was on the lost property rack at the end of school the year before, but they still failed to collect. And somehow, they thought surely we wouldnt donate such an EXPENSIVE and top brand coat! My son had a missing rainjacket on day 3 so I had been checking all year for it (it finally turned up, someone had worn it home, and eventually wore it back when the weather was right for it, then promptly dropped it in the playground just as DS had. He was convinced it had somehow been in the playground all year, unnoticed by anyone! ) Anyway, that other coat was there so long and I almost just took it. It was almost just like the one we were missing, except for being from a high tech camping store brand, instead of Tesco.

Huh, I wonder if that kid was the one that had ours? Maybe they didnt realise their naice one was missing as long as it actually was, because our cheap one was on a peg in their closet?

[Laladeepsouth]

TalcAndTurnips, you had posted (and so well!) before I could get my thoughts together. Yes, it's quite unbelievable! Chumley and his North Face made me laugh, but the pair of pants really hit home. I know: How? Why?

[Edna1969]

Aaaggghhh!!! Lost property hell here.

DDs are told to check but as neither can find / see a skirt right in front of them then I don't stand much chance.

I sew labels into their uniform and iron them in. They are very secure. I ALWAYS find the girls labelled jumpers in lost property but it seems that noone checks.

[Lambbone]

In my previous school, the office staff (of whom I was one) went through the lost property box from time to time.

We had to beg kids to come and collect their named stuff.

I never did track down the owner of the coconut. Nor the owner of the inflatable desert island.

[YouTheCat]

That narrows it down then...

[BoneyBackJefferson]

AllPizzasGreatAndSmall

"Surely you are not saying that all members of staff are emailed about a lost jumper?"

We get loads of emails asking if we can find pupil's P.E kit it will usually contain the details "black drawstring bag"

[YouTheCat]

Candles, we have a parent like that at our school too. She was ranting about an exclamation mark the other day. The world would end if her child lost a jumper.

I'd love to unleash my full sarcasm mode at some parents but sadly, I think I'd get sacked. might do it if I win the lottery

[RaisingSteam]

No label, no chance.

Perhaps the school should offer a deal on those stick-on-the-care-label stickers.

Most of our stuff is personalised, labelled and some of it with mobile number as well (football kit that goes all over the county) and it STILL gets lost.

What will happen at secondary school next year I dread to think.

[fastdaytears]

candles

[fastdaytears]

It's not the same but as a Brownie and Guide leader I can tell you that lost property is the worst bit! A lot of girls come straight from school and leave behind school uniform etc (as well as loads of Brownie and a Guide uniform which is always unnamed) but by the time I get hold of a parent to say I have school coat/book bag/shoes/God knows what it's well after 9 and then I have to direct them to my house and delay the wine/PJs routine until all reunited. It happens most weeks as the girls race out to see their parents at about 100mph.

[candlesandlight]

A friend told me about an incident in her child's school recently. Young boy lost his jumper, father tells staff ,with an attitude of "it's your responsibility " to look for it, few days later returns and she hears him telling the teacher that he will consider it theft if staff don't find jumper by end of day !!!!

[InexperiencedDisneyMum]

All labelled items should be returned to the child the TA's at our school do it. Anything else is put in a lost property box. Our school keep until the summer where they go to charity.