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.

Oh god I hate the 'all in the box here' rule. It's the only time dd2 has ever lost anything at school (hat/gloves in winter - fine when she was taking them off and putting straight in her bag as I'd taught her; immediately missing once the 'in the big box' rule was implemented; same for water bottle; same for another (expensive, logo'ed) hat when they were collect up on a trip rather than dd2 putting it in her coat pocket as she'd been taught; etc etc)

It can't have gone far. Give it a week or so to reappear, and bat back any attempt by the school to get you to provide a new one.

If I were you I'd go in and look for it, and apologise to the teacher.

Everyone saying buy a cheap one, I can't. The school are strict, these are specialised book bags hence the ungodly price!

£30!!

And please read, I did name it. In great big black letters & it had orange star stickers on the name label

So it's not really the kind of thing that should go missing?

Or that should go home by mistake?

You know what? I'm going to come in all guns blazing on this one. I've absolutely had it up to here with this attitude of 'they're only kids' and 'It's only a book bag' and 'accidents happen'.

I've lost count of how many bits of kit have vanished over the past fifteen years. Some important and valuable. Sometimes it reappears, a few days later. Sometimes it doesn't.

Most staff in most schools are helpful. A substantial minority aren't. But the ongoing theme continues to be a rather bleating hand waving, as though soothing the cross mummy was the first priority, not finding out how the cockup happened and dealing with the problem.

Of course 99% of the time it is a genuine mistake. But getting shouty about it early might just stop the 1% who go on to make a career out of nicking kit off other kids stop in their tracks. And the parents who seem to think finders keepers is a good way of acquiring school stuff without paying for it.

YABVU. How many people would the school need to employ to follow 30 children in each class around all day to ensure that they don't loose their jumper, book bag, shoes, socks etc etc?

If you have older children then you should know that this sort of thing happens all the time and that things turn up. I cannot believe that you were so rude to the teacher about it. It's not her fault. You maybe ought to think about apologising, especially when he will come out of school waving it tomorrow, and gleefully tell you that it was found in the cloakroom where he forgot he put it.

TBH I wouldn't even consider replacing it, but equally I wouldn't expect the school to replace it either (because they don't and they won't, otherwise they'd spend a small fortune replacing stuff that goes missing within their boundaries).

I would take the view that it will turn up eventually, and if they get arsey with you because your DS doesn't have their particular book bag I would simply shrug and say "it's gone missing IN SCHOOL and until it turns up he will have to make do with a Tesco carrier". What are they going to do - exclude him because a 5 year old has misplaced a book bag?

Don't sweat the small stuff!

Can't you just say to the teacher then that you can't afford a new one so he'll just be using a plain bag until it turns up?

£30!!!!!! Flipping heck!

I wasn't rude to this teacher, honestly I'm not an animal. I just said that if it's not found tomorrow surely the school would replace it as it's been lost in the classroom under this new teachers method of keeping them. I'm not a newbie at this school & all previous years kids kept them in their own drawers.

£30 😱 Bloody hell? I would start a massive protest if my kids school charged that for a book bag! Wtf is made out of - gold?!

They can't exactly force you to buy a new one, just as they can't pay for a new one for you.

It is REALLY hard to lose stuff in a classroom. Misplace it, put it in the wrong place but not to actually lose it.

I'm sure it will turn up in a few days. Just send a carrier bag in instead until it does.

£30 is ridiculous

Christ £30 for a book bag, can a school's grabbiness get any worse.

£30 Jesus H.

Awwww op, I really sympathise, that's utter shit.

Hopefully it will be brought in tomorrow, if not, ask the teachers to put a note in everyone else's book bag asking to check they have the right one?

I'm not sure I understand why it is not school's fault? Not being funny, but I don't get it. Why is it ok to trust the school with leaving your child there but not with leaving said child's possessions?

£30???? Dd's school Insisted on these book bags with school logo and they were £12 which I thought was far too dear! What makes them so special??

£30 for a book bag? Makes my kids ones sound like bargains @ £5 each!!

I'd be informing the school that you will be using a generic for now as I'm rather unhappy that £30 as just gone walkies!

Why is it ok to trust the school with leaving your child there but not with leaving said child's possessions

When 30 children get ready to go home, it's not exactly easy to check that everyone has the right stuff and that it's their stuff.

Just read up thread - £30??? How the hell can a book bag cost that much?

Never mind the bloody bag, I'd seriously be looking at a different school.

I don't understand how "specialist a book bag can be. It's for carrying books... Unless it's for something else entirely, and actually worth thirty quid. In which case it isn't what most people would reckon a book bag to be.

The rule of sending anything to school is only send it if you don't mind it getting lost / can replace it.

The other side of this is I am amazed at the amount of lost property still left, coats, lunch bags, etc at the end of term. How Donyounth know you've lost a coat??