To implement a new rule for lost property at primary?

[HamandCheeseSandwich]

In that, if it's uniform with no name on - goes to the PTA second hand uniform sale.

Bottles/bags/coats/anything else - all taken to charity shop every Friday.

If it has your name in, we will if course hold on to it...but only until half term. Then it's fair game.

I am in the office and have had enough of "have you seen Johnny's jumper?" And when asked if labelled it's 99% "no". Yes, love I've seen his jumper, it's so very different to the 450 others...

The OP relates to unnamed items.

Did it occur to you that maybe it appeared whilst I was writing??

The discussion has widened.

Being as there are replies well before yours, unlikely.

Oh get over yourself!

Parents need to put names in uniform. Sharpie pen if need be.
The amount of time I spent sowing labels in !
I must have gone OTT with buying labels as still have some but both DC have now graduated from University!

Our PTA posts photos of lost property every half term and gives people a week to claim items before they donate them to charity/ the second hand shop.

Our Primary has just implemented this. Anything not claimed from the lost property box by the end of the week goes in the rag bag for recycling/cash for clothes.

Yes, sometimes named items go missing too. And if they are named it makes it much more likely for them to find their way back to the person with the same name, than if they are unnamed.

If your concern is not losing school uniform, then I'm not sure why you would not name items, because... named items also go missing. But whatever works for you.

I worked in a primary for a number of years. I used to go through the lost property most weeks and take named stuff back to classes.

Unnamed stuff was left in there and if parents came looking for missing uniform items I used to say, for example, that one jumper is very much like another, so if it fits your child, then take it.

My son routinely lost his jumper, so I often used to take a couple for him from the LP box. They ended up back in there after a while. I had a little win once when I found an unnamed jumper in there from the local secondary school he would be going to! No clue where that came from.

What did surprise me was the number of unnamed coats and shoes? Why were they never claimed? Who doesn't notice their child is missing a coat or shoes? These were put out in the playground towards the end of every term.

Decent stuff that was never claimed went into our own small store of "spares". So if child fell in a muddy puddle, for example, they could be reclothed head to toe if needed.

Towards the end of the summer term, all lost property went out into the playground and parents could take what they wanted. Anything left over went to clothes recycling.

Even when they are named though! I have named all my child's things yet somehow she has come home with someone else's unnamed jumper

Our primary school does that. if its not named, its kept for up to 2 weeks in lost property.Afterwards it goes to the second hand sale, or the bin. If it’s labelled, it’s returned to the right class.
Its done by year 6 children, so no extra work for staff.
Works a treat.

Wouldn’t it be easier just to name them all at school?

The school my boys went to when young had a hanging rail with hangers on like in a shop it was on wheels, it was put in the corner of the big hall.
All lost clothes were hung there and at the end of term everything went to the charity shop. It gave parents a chance to find things. Unless like my son you lost your jumper on the last day. Weekly is a bit overkill.

Once a week is a bit much OP, maybe a mixture of ideas from other schools would give parents a chance to cone and have a look.
Trolley on Friday, Rack each day by exit and then once a term take to charity/re sell.

The fact that this is an issue in pretty much every school by the sounds of it, I'm not sure things will change. Kids lose shit and parents forget to lable stuff 🤷 probs best not to get too wound up about it.

Not what the thread is about but labeling stuff defo doesn't stop ot going missing/getting stolen.

Yes, Jack Rooney and your Mum, I'm looking at you!!! (Still pissed off about that coat 10yrs on 😂)

So fucking put your kid's name on it.

You think staff are going to check 450+ jumpers, 450+ coats, 450+ bottles, 450+ book bags every day for names and then label the ones that aren't named... every day for a few weeks?

Easier for who?

Working full time with a (then undiagnosed) dyspraxic child was "interesting" as I was never at drop-off/ pick-up. Everything was named though.

When I stopped working, I was then able to ask weekly to search through the floor of the cloakroom nook carpeted in navy blue jumpers and cardigans, to be able to gather my weekly uniform wash, as DS lost his every day. It was a tight space so the children knocked things off easily in passing. Originally the school was built to have pegs along the classroom walls of the coridors, but by DS' time it was deemed a fire hazard so they had to be crammed into under-sized classrooms.
Design definitely contributed to the problem.

It was a relief when DS boycotted jumpers for good in y3

My DCs' finest moment came when DS2 changed for an after school club, came home in kit leaving his uniform in the hall, then had an early morning session. DS1 could not find his school shoes. We realised that his school shoes had walked to school on his brother's feet 🤦‍♀️ DS1 then had a meltdown over having to wear trainers in and having to ask DS2 to swap shoes. Fortunately I was volunteering that morning as DS1 went to DS2's class then went into shut down, so I managed to explain that DS1 needed to take the shoes from DS2's feet and DS2 needed to go to the hall and claim his shoes and the rest of his uniform. From the teacher's expression, this was not a standard request even by y1 standards

Labelling definitely helps but there does need to be systems to unite the items with the child, and younger children (or their parents) need some support with that. Not all parents can check the playground at pick up (so may need liason with the ASC) and there will be children with delayed executive function (which alas can't be cured by intense parental nagging- oh how I've tried...)

But OP says...
Named items returned to child.
Unnamed items will be disposed of.

So naming the item will ensure that item will ve returned to child if ends up in lost property.
Theft is a different matter.

Every Friday is draconian. I label DD’s stuff but when she loses things it’s near-impossible to get at the school’s lost property as she’s in wraparound care multiple afternoons and when she isn’t we need to whizz off for swimming lessons, but they keep it under lock and key.

Make it as easy as possible for parents to
rummage through the giant pile (both primaries my kids have attended seem to delight in stuffing it all in a deep box in a dark, inaccessible corridor then restricting the times; although a friend’s primary puts it in labelled kallaxes in the school office and it works brilliantly – you can go in and go straight for the drawer labelled “jumpers” instead of sifting through unrelated stuff), and get rid half-termly. YANBU that people should label stuff but weekly chuck-outs help no one, least of all the environment.

Yes, they do, it they don't generally end up staying in lost property. If they're handed in, they get returned to class. Unless it just has "Sam" on it and there's 35 Sam's in the school. the it stays in the box for ages.

Sam's coat will get donated to charity now. Because if the child or parents can't be bothered to look for it, they obviously don't need it, so someone else can make use of it.

Our school has some yellow salt bins in the playground where lost things go.
parents and kids can find to there.
each term the smallest clothes are sent to reception for spares. And the rest of left over is given the pta who run a free/give what you want uniform service.
tbh I think the no label thing is ok, when I go an look for my Y1 kids cardigans I just take suitable sized ones. I used to label (my older kids) items with name and phone number and class name. Nothing ever got back to us that way .so I said screw it. i make sure I have 2 cardigans of suitable size.

It's not chucking it out. It's putting it in the PTA sale cupboard,or the charity shop.

I would put it out for a week at the end of each half term for people to look through. At my DC's school it's not accessible, so even though all ours is named I still get a pile of jumpers at the end of term when someone looks through