To say if not found the SCHOOL should replace it?

[Arrowfanatic]

Day one of school today. My year one son came out of school crying as his book bag has gone missing. This book bag is an expensive one issued by the school, I cannot afford to replace it.

He had it in school, the teachers were very half hearted about it. Suggested another child took it home, but since there were no bags in the classroom left over this child would presumably have left with 2 bags.

I told the teacher if it wasn't found tomorrow I would expect the school to replace it. The way I see it the bag was sent in to school, I have no control on how the bags are stored in school so why should I have to replace what is an expensive item when it's not my fault & a 5 year old who goes to get his back from the storage & find it missing is also not to blame.

It'll have been nicked. I used to often write my kids' names on stuff in Sharpie - they'd still go missing and with the same excuse, that another kid took it home and didn't notice. If your child's nae is on it - how could the parents not notice?

One of my sons once even had his coat vanish at school - a quite expensive coat and it had his name in it clearly, and was fairly new and VERY distinctive. It had huge sentimental value for me, for certain reasons. The school never bothered to search for it or return it (he had special needs and it was 'lost' on the school bus during a school trip - even if it had been left on there, it was the same bus and driver every day).

I used to be a primary teacher and know how busy they are but really if a parent has lost something they only just bought/expensive/important to the child, I would take their concerns seriously and at least have made an effort to help them find it.

Oh and yes - as per the school uniforms thread - if schools must insist on kids having this book bag and that jumper - then they should be made to pay for it if it is 'lost' and they make no effort to help a parent recover it. Even a fiver is a lot of money to many of us, and let's face it, school books would be fine in a placky carrier bag - it's not like parents insist they have a certain bag.

That's pretty much what I said joffery luckily not much in the way of clothing has gone missing but stationary is a different issue..

I've told dd this year she's not to lend out anything this yr as I'm sick of kitting out her class with pens and shit. They can buy their sodding own.

Our infant school actually tells you to personalise their bags so they can easily identify them, and DO NOT write on the label under the flap as it's a right pain trying to check whose bag is whose. Book bags in our school are all covered with stickers, keyrings, embroidery or patches sewn on, fabric pen writing etc. But then this is a normal school with £5 bookbags not a super fancy school with solid gold book bags so maybe they have more common sense.

£30?!!!!!!!

The school must be making a tidy profit on those bags!! SDD is in reception, she has a thick, good quality bookbag with school logo on - it even has a detachable shoulder strap if you prefer to carry it that way... it cost £6.

I'm a secondary teacher (so obviously not the same as 5 year olds) but if something went missing I would get all of the kids to check their bags before letting them leave. But maybe your DS didn't point it out to the teacher until they were all filing out of the classroom already? While it's annoying, I really don't think the school would be willing to pay. £30 might not take much out of their budget. But when, by the end of the year, 10 kids have lost their bookbags and 20 have lost their blazers... you're looking at hundreds of pounds and even private schools don't have that kind of money lying around!

My 13 year old has spent an hour this evening trying to find the cheapest place to replace his scientific calculator which he has lost within 2 days of taking it to school.

We are mean, nasty and horrid parents who are making him buy a replacement. This is the same child who lost a jacket, pair of trainers and his locker key (twice) last year.

Mine managed to come home without trousers once. After PE, they were gone. All PE bags checked, nobody had them. They turned up weeks later. 30 kids never get up without shedding stuff everywhere.

I have 2 DC, came home today with 3 bookbags and 1 jumper, I'm sure it'll all work itself out tomorrow.

Very easy to be relaxed about it though as school give out the bookbags free, so theft is unheard of, although confusion commonly reigns. Secondhand uniform is available at 50p (suggested donation) per item. £30 bookbags for infants is just bonkers!

It's a bag! I wish these were the problems I faced! You always get one gobby mother I'm sure the teacher is used to it. Good luck with teaching that child, the mother is s monster

Congratulations OP. You have just named yourself 'that parent' and will be renowned in the staff room. Hope you don't have any genuine problems to raise with the staff later on.

Doesn't really matter TBH. They can only tattle in the staffroom and I'm sure if the OP has any issues to raise in the future, they'll deal with it as they should.

I had no problem speaking to the teachers as often as I needed. If I wasn't satisfied I went to the headteacher. I'm sure they tattled in the staffroom, but in the interest of my DC, I didn't care.

I too have spoken to teachers about my son, we're encouraged to do so. His actions/behaviour/merits/learning!
When he lost his £60 coat last year after being placed on his peg-by a ta, I demanded the school bought him a new one..... No wait a minute I didn't as that would have been RIDICULOUS

I don't think you were rude, I think you were within your rights to complain. And I've read through the comments so I can see you had written his name on it clearly.

Not read all the replies but....
THIRTY QUID for a book bag?!

£2.50 at ours. I'd be seriously peed off if one of mine had managed to lose something on the very first day of being at school, but come on.
You can't expect school to cough up for every item of clothing/bookbag etc that's lost over the course of the school term though, surely?!
They'd be bankrupt by the end of the school year!
And please read, I did name it. In great big black letters & it had orange star stickers on the name label.
If it's at school with names on, then it'll surely be left on your child's desk the next morning as they'll know whose it is. Either that or check the lost property bin, I always find lost stuff of ours in their either the next day or a few days after when it suddenly turns up!
I can't see why anyone would deliberately walk off with a bookbag they knew wasn't theirs, especially if it had something as conspicuous as orange star stickers on. Must surely be a mistake if so and they'll bring it back when realise isn't theirs.

in there. Not in their. Grrr.

How did it go OP what a nightmare £30 for a book bag I heard it all now. Buy a cheap bag to put his books into and if they say anything then tell them you can't afford it if they are going to lose it.

Ego147 Tue 06-Sep-16 21:00:22 >> Works in many primary schools throughout the country.

Some of the comments on here are really rude and totally missing the point and actually pissed me off.
No she doesn't need to apologise to the teacher - you weren't there so you don't know how it was said or even how the teacher was behaving. also it was day one! Day blooming one. The teacher should have been a little more enthusiastic, she shouldnt be that jaded yet (as she not doubt will be by the end of the school year)
Also no one said being a teacher is easy and they get to sail through the day but it is actually partly her fault. She took the bag from him (some where he could see it and be responsible for it) and put it in a place she wanted it stored. Therefore it was not this poor child's fault and it's certainly not the mothers.
And while I'm at it these people that are demanding a link/screenshot to prove its actually £30 can do one. It doesn't matter if it's £3 or £30 - she paid it as the school demanded, it was lost while in the care of teacher (and yes it was in her care - as soon as moved it to a place of her choosing it was her responsibility) so if she can't afford to replace it, she can't afford it no matter what the cost. Surely the school can get one for her a cost as there WILL be a mark up and yes I do think on this occasion they should be held responsible.

Think of it another way - if you were at a restaurant and you put your bag under the table and the manager came over and said "no we don't store bag there, I will put it will all the other bags and no you don't have a choice" but when you go to collect said bag it's gone. Why is that any different. You'd kick right off at the person that moved it and you'd demand they replace it.
Before people jump in with oh what department/fund would you like the schools to deplete to replace it. What bill, expenditure do you want the mum to forgo to replace it?
The teacher should have made more of an effort in both this in a box policy and helping the mum! Don't enforce such a strict dress code and have no means to support the parents. From what I read the mum did everything right.
I do hope it's found and was just a mixup. Let us know how it ends.

At the restaurant there are not normally 30 4 and 5 year olds with no parents who turn up every day.

Wow teacher training will start to include security guard procedures and frisking etc!.. Teacher is there to teach

What an enlightening thread!

I've never heard of bookbags before - they don't seem to be a 'thing' in Scotland as a PP observed - and I'm not sure I see the point of them, to be honest.

Stuff does go missing as others have said, and you can't really ask the school to pay for replacements. Parents just have to cough up.

I did get pissed off with DC's school once, when my son came home missing a glove from a brand new pair. I went into school the next morning and was directed to the lost property bin, but it was empty. I asked someone where all the stuff was and was told the bin was full so it had been taken a charity shop. I pointed out he'd only lost the glove less than 24 hours ago, so this was my first chance to look, but it had all gone, even all the odds and ends.

I got the name of the charity shop and went along but they said their policy on school stuff was never to give back to parents who 'identified' missing items as there were a lot of chancers who wanted something for nothing. Even explaining it was a single glove that they couldn't sell anyway didn't cut much ice. They said they hadn't sorted the bag yet so I gave them an exact desciption of the glove and left my phone number but I never did hear anything. That was infuriating as we live in a very small town and it meant a bit of a drive to buy a new pair.

I didn't charge the school petrol money though.

Did the book bag turn up OP?

Op
I think you need to point out to the teacher the cost of the book bags and the fact of having a box of 30 book bag is like leaving 90 quid just out in the open and any one could nick it .

At my daughter's school, the names are written on the outside of the bags and they are allowed to decorate them. They all sit with their bags and coats on while the teacher is doing goodbye time so it becomes obvious if something is missing and can be sorted out before home time.

Hope it turned up ok, OP!