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?

[Roobo]

There will always be parents that think their child's lost items are the school staffs' responsibility. It's annoying, but just one of those things.

I'd love to tell some parents that I simply don't give a shit about their little loves lost jumper. I won't look for it; and even when I smile and tell you I will... I'm actually lying

[MrsHenryMountbattenWindsor]

Have I got this right? Labelled uniform is going in a 'lost property' box?! Thats just damn right lazy and mean IMO.

How ever big is this school that no one has time to pass a labelled item to its owner?

That's the same as finding a wallet with someone's bame in it and just keeping it yourself because it's not your responsibility to find its correct owner.

Is this a big secondary school? That's the only possible explanation to my mind.

In our school labelled stuff gets given to its owner. No question. And we quite often get emails alerting everyone to a lost item.

Ours is an independent pre-prep. I'd be to think that makes a difference.

As for unlabelled stuff - well that's just asking for trouble! That should all go in the school second-hand shop.

[WaxyBean]

I think it's fair to sell anything unlabelled, and actively returning labelled stuff to classrooms is a very sensible idea too. everything my DSs wear to school is labelled - down to socks and vests and all I've had go missing is a jumper (which it turned out another child was wearing because she had lost her (unlabelled) jumper - and the mother knew this and wasn't returning it! - unbelievable!).

[LibrariesGaveUsPower]

I don't think teachers should be returning uniform.

But have I understood correctly that you can only check on a Friday and that the box then gets emptied?

That seems harsh. A jumper left on the field on Friday lunchtime might not even have been noticed to be missing by that point. Yes, it should be labelled, but still...

[ravenAK]

No, it says in the OP all the labelled stuff is returned when the box is gone through weekly. It's the festering unclaimed & unlabelled stuff which is going to be disposed of.

I teach in a secondary. If anyone finds an item lying around, they check for a label & ask the nearest kids 'Does anyone know Jack Smith?' 'Oh yes miss, he's in 7AB'. Member of staff then gets one of their form to run it round to Jack in afternoon/next morning registration if he hasn't already been back for it.

All unlabelled lost property is kept in a box in the office until end of half term - it's three HUGE boxes. Then one lunchtime it's spread out in a classroom & kids are told this is happening so that anyone who's aware they are missing a football sock can go & rake through the rancid heaps.

Then anything left gets rag banked.

No-one's ever complained, to my knowledge.

[LibrariesGaveUsPower]

No, it says in the OP all the labelled stuff is returned when the box is gone through weekly. It's the festering unclaimed & unlabelled stuff which is going to be disposed of.

Actually, it's slightly unclear. It says that the box 'can' be checked weekly on a Friday (but not by who - I assumed that meant parents/pupils) and says what will happen to unlabelled stuff, but not what will happen to labelled stuff:

"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."

[TalcAndTurnips]

You would not be-liiiiieeeeevvve the amount of lost property at my school. I would say we generate about two or three large bin bagsful each term.

Labelled stuff (tiny minority) is notified to its owner via note. The rest is sorted into type and put in a massive cabinet where pupils can check (supervised) if they have lost something. The majority goes unclaimed - new coats, expensive shoes and trainers, baguettes in tupperware boxes, PE kit, spectacles, undercrackers - you name it.

Exasperated parents phone to say that Cholmondeley has lost his brand new North Face padded jacket. It's in the cabinet - Chumley has been told repeatedly to come to collect it, but prefers to take his chances in the monsoon outside. It remains there, small hillocks of dust forming upon the shoulders.

A pair of pants lies on the shelf. What incident led to them being parted from their owner? We shall never know.

The baguette goes green with mould. A single boy's black shoe harbours a lone sock. The leaves grow on the tree, turn brown and are blown away by autumn winds.

[SanityClause]

We have two lovely parents who go through the lost property every Friday, and hang all labelled items on the peg of the child it belongs to.

At the end of the term, there is an announcement that parents need to check lost property, as any unclaimed will be donated to the uniform sale, or otherwise disposed of. Everything is put out on some tables in a lobby area for about a week.

I remember a parents' session at DS's previous school. A parent asked if anyone had seen her DD's brand new track suit trousers. "Were they labelled?" asked the head. "No." "Red, were they?" (Ie, uniform colour.)

[AllPizzasGreatAndSmall]

And we quite often get emails alerting everyone to a lost item.

Surely you are not saying that all members of staff are emailed about a lost jumper? We have over 500 children, we wouldn't want to be told every time one of them lost something so we could look out for it.

It never ceases to amaze me that parents don't label their child's jumper, or put initials or some mark that the child recognises, without realising that nobody else will know who it belongs to.

[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.

[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 !!!!

[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.

[fastdaytears]

candles

[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.

[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

[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]

That narrows it down then...

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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?

[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.

[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).