Lost property at school.

[ThisLittleKitty]

3 weeks ago I bought my son a new coat for school. Anyway about a week ago he came out with no coat after school I asked him where it was and he said he left it in the lunch hall. Anyway I asked reception where lost property was and they told me. Only it wasn't in there, I mentioned it again to his teacher as I saw an identical coat hanging up outside another class (same year) well she never did. Aibu to expect it back! If he lost it in school then it should be there yes I get he left it there but he is only 5 and yes it had his name written inside.

WAS

HIS

NAME

ON

IT

????????????

I’m a TA with kids in my school. I go through lost property about 3 times a week. I personally hand return any named items to the pupils by hand - I physically take them to the class to the pupils.

I also know the children from the playground - 90% of the un-named property I return is because I know from sight that this is Suzie’d coat...

There are 360 kids in my school. We do BLOODY WELL to return what we do to the children. If you can’t be arsed to take a sharpie to a label and even initial it, why should I traipse all over the school to return it.

@ThisLittleKitty you may do well just to hide the thread now. You're going to get 50 more posts ignoring your post saying you put his name on it asking if you put his name on it.

Make sure you put his name on the new coat too!

Too late for this occasion but (& I think I got this tip on here) as well as putting name on label write it inside sleeve. That way if there is any doubt about ownership you’ve got somewhere else to check. Or prove it’s your child’s (yes footie mum who accused my son of taking your sons training top hah! We showed you!)

Literally every minute of my time is accounted to the SMT. I’m not joking when I say that 5 mins returning a jacket is 5 minutes a dyslexic child isn’t getting focused help, or a severely autistic child isn’t getting in the sensory room. But yeah, explain to me again why you bought an expensive item and didn’t label it

Bathsheba the name was on it. Op has said that several times.

to you and the effort you make. It makes a difference to us parents of scatterbrains.

I was so sick of rifling through the lost property cupboard that I went to the head and asked permission to sort it for the school. I bought different boxes, labelled them for different types of articles, and went into school once a fortnight to sort through, giving names items to the school secretary to return to their owners. I was still amazed at the number of unnamed items.

Lionguard I hope you don't work in my DCs school. My year 9 still struggles to stay organised. Not because she can't be arsed as you seem to think secondary school children are, but because she is dealing with a chronic condition which makes it hard for her to manage. I really can't get over that you throw named items in the bin.

Good grief

^But yeah, explain to me again why you bought an expensive item and didn’t label it

Only she did label it.

Sorry Beryl my face isn't intended for you

BerylStreep that's a good idea. I was mildly amused the other day to find random pieces of cutlery in the lost property box amongst the jumpers and coats!

Sorry tiredmumno1 I'm ignoring your post because you didn't label it.

Oh shit Jon was it not?

Tiredmumno1

Is that better

It’s not the teacher’s job to look around for your child’s stuff. That your child’s job, and yours.

They just have the planning, marking, assessment and teaching of 30 children to worry about. Oh and the liaising with 60 parents/caters, staff meetings, training, changing curriculum etc to get to grips with.

it'll do for now tiredmumno1 but next time use a different font too so it really stands out.

If the teacher forgot to get back to you, why didn't you just ask her again?

Ha if only I had a bright orange button

Tiredmumno1

(best I could do )

Oh and Jon just remember to stick me in lost property if I get lost

I have a poorly DD (hence the late MNing).

I'd elbow you and Prince Harry out the way of a comfy looking lost property box right now. Forks and all.

I don’t think you can assume it’s been stolen just because it’s been missing a week. If it’s been picked up by accident by a child with the same or a very similar coat it could be weeks before anyone notices the coat has the ‘wrong’ label in it.

I am actually poorly myself, I was just waiting until I could take my tablets (which I have now) so I can try and get some sleep.

Play nice otherwise I'll be back tomorrow to hand out detentions

My 2 stopped losing school clothes when I bought a black sharpie and wrote their names EVERYWHERE inside the garment. Inside of collars, inside waistbands, coat sleeve linings, several places inside each shoe, on every label.

Of course the teacher forgot to get back to you. She probably forgot all about the coat within about 2 minutes of you leaving her.

I work in a school.
The other day a child came up to me and said her coat was missing.
I know what it looks like.
At the same time I happened to see another child wearing a coat which looked very tight on her.
I asked her "is that your coat?"
Turns out she had the first child's coat on.
The thing is they were different colours. One was navy with a belt and no hood. The other was pink with a big fur hood!!!!

If it really is just missing it has to be somewhere in school. If it's not in school that probably means a child has taken it home by mistake thinking it's theirs. As long as it is named, most parents will notice and send their child to give it back and find their own. Or notice that they now have two of the same item and send one back in to school. Sadly some parents will just decide it's a case of 'finders keepers'- they'll remove the labels and put their own child's name in it. Because stealing from a child is apparently perfectly acceptable!

My son is always losing things. Doesn't help that his way of putting his belongings away is to stand at the end of the cloakroom and throw his bag/ coat in the general direction of his peg.

I'll tell you EXACTLY why I throw names items in the charity bin.

I have 55 teenagers, aged 14 and up (no SEN before you ask). They have tons of clothes, which go to the laundry twice a week (boarding). Getting these clothes sorted and back to the right owners is a nightmare and every week we end up with a bin bag full of lost property. Mostly unnamed, but some with names in too.

I am fed up of returning items to owners who frankly have so much shit that you could throw half away and they wouldn't notice. Many take no care of their stuff at all and are too lazy to retrieve it from lost property- they just buy more.

So fairly quickly in this job I realised that I am not prepared to spend more time returning lost property than they spend themselves looking for it.

They get a week to pick up property and then it gets thrown. ALL of it. I've thrown away Armani jackets with a name in - is it my problem? No it is not. Better. Things. To. Do.