school and lost property.

[Butterflykissess]

son lost a coat at school that Was never found (this was last year) son has now lost another coat and again its nowhere to be seen! it was clearly labelled with his name. ive personally checked as have the teachers and nothing. aibu to fed up with this? and cant keep buying him new coats as this will be the 3rd this year! btw hes 6. surely if the coat was lost at school it should still be there?!

Someone has taken it. It's terribly annoying but it happens. My trick these days is never to buy expensive ones for school.

Well another child has probably taken it...

Sadly too many parents aren’t honest and don’t send things back which to home accidentally.

I try to avoid sending in anything expensive or which we would be bothered about being lost

I've worked in schools and parents steal coats. We have had it on a few occasions including once where the parent flat out denied it as the labels had been cut out but the other parent said there was a hidden label in the pocket and there was. Shameless!

Where and when have you checked? I've had success with waiting a week then rechecking lost property and the cloakrooms just after school when the children had left. Found coat about 2 cloakrooms down from where it should be.

parents actually steal coats?! thats crazy. well they were only from primark and asda but its buying a 3 rd one in one school year thats annoying. i suspect it is stolen as i checked the lost property and asked his teacher twice, as he is currently going to school with a coat with no hood as its all his got till i can afford a new one (its been raining here today) daughters coats are from monsoon, better stop sending her in in them if thats whats happening. as tbh the first time it happened (last year but still same school year) its never been seen since.

People nick them. The school can’t (and shouldn’t have to) police it.

Have 4 children at school and over the years all sorts of things have gone missing or been broken.

e.g. over this last year DS3 has gone through 5 drinks bottles.

Have had incorrect white polo shirts changed into after P.E. Washed, dried and ironed the other child's top and gave it back to the child's father, requesting our (M&S one) back. Never saw it. (He worked at a local garage we used so never went back there, can't trust him with a top, not trusting him with our car!)

Had new coats pulled on by other children and zips broken as a consequence etc.

In secondary had a bag with trainers and P.E. socks disappear, so it doesn't stop when they get older.

Unfortunately there's not much schools can do so we just have to suck it up, if they have enough money to employ extra staff to watch out for everyone's belongings then they would probably rather spend it on books, pencils and building repairs etc.

It's even more galling as it's usually stuff the school require the children to have so we have to send them in with it, don't usually have much of an option. Just buy cheaper stuff when we can now in case it gets lost\stolen\broken. (Can't do this with tops with logos on etc, but anything without logos we try to buy cheaply.)

I had a colleague who had a child in their class stealing to order on the instruction of a parent. Difficult to prove but it goes on.

Always clearly label but always try to get labels in places people won't look.

My best piece of advice is to have his name embroidered on the chest, near where a brand logo usually goes. Little Bobby with the dishonest mother won't be going round in a nice new coat that has Joshua embroidered on the front. It's actually really cheap to get items embroidered. Our local embroidery shop regularly embroidered names for about £4!

yes they get pinched.
Top tips, label every single school item with a black permanent marker written on the coat itself, in largish letters (so not on the label)
Ours are written inside above the label just under the collar.

Write it again in a 'secret' place, eg turn one sleeve inside out and write it. This is so that if you see another child in it, you can ask to check if it is your child's coat, and get it back.

Anything which has been clearly, obviously labelled with something which cannot be cut out is much less likely to go missing.

second top tip, always, always send them back in for anything forgotten. Come out without their jumper? Go back in and get it.
This means they will learn to find it and bring it out with them at home time, reducing the time it is available to be pinched, and they do get much better at keeping tabs on their stuff.

Initially mine only had one school sweatshirt, so if they lost it, they had to go in in a non school one. It did encourage them to look after them.

When I helped in dd2s class, one day at the end of school there was a pile of 25 cardies and sweatshirts in the corner (for some reason they all had to put them in the corner when not wearing them. As the kids lined up, I went through them, intending to give them out to the kids as they left.

Out of 25, one had a visible name. Just one.
The very next day I was waiting to pick dd up and someone was complaining about lost sweatshirts, so I told them this story, and pointed out that the one with a name wasn't their child's.

Take a look at Stamptastic too. stamptastic.co.uk/collections/named-stamp/products/standard-name-stamp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI07aIvY7T2wIVjjgbCh1n1gRSEAAYASAAEgIaAvD_BwE

The ink never washes off labels and most materials (though it won't stay on stretchy materials such as socks - I tried!)
I have just one single stamp with my children's surname on as they're the only ones in the school with that name and I can use the stamp for all of them. It's so much better than messing about sewing and sticking labels or faffing with pens. You save money with every personalised stamp you buy and it's useful for the whole of their school lives. I however only needed one.