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...

I’m answering the OP.

Our PTA do this at the end of every term. Any uniform that is unlabeled goes into the second hand uniform, anything that can go to a charity shop gets donated and everything else goes into recycling or in the bin. It only needs to be done once a term because year 6 have lost property monitors so once a week they dig out all the labeled items and return them to the children. I think that doing it weekly is too often, I don't go near the school wed-fri so wouldn't have a chance to look if my child had lost something, doesn't feel very fair to me.

And our school swore blind they checked for names. Everything of our kids stuff was named. The amount that went missing was ridiculous. They all had Stikins labels and Sharpie names too. I distinctly remember finding one of our kids clearly labelled shirt but from a previous school year when looking through one time!

Mistakes happen which is why I don’t think you go straight to selling them.

Yes or the setting that needs a particular thing done could you know….get it done. It’s perfectly commonplace in other countries (and indeed in the uk previously ) for children to participate in meaningful useful activities to support their own learning and lives.

We have this system (2 form entry primary)
2 bins, in reception, easily accessible for children and parents. The front bin is the one for the current week.
Week 1: all items found go in bin 1.
Week 2: all items found go in bin 2.
End of week 2: 3 designated year 6 children go through bin 1 and sort items int named/unnamed.
Everything named gets returned to the right classroom.
Everything unnamed gets sorted between second hand (most stuff, pta members then double check for names) or bin (chewed water bottles, single socks, completely ripped stuff).
Week 1 bin now empty, and moved to the front.
and so on
Works a treat.

Exactly, they must have learnt it somewhere….I wonder how we could get the next generation to do it without making a huge performance. Who knows it could be a positive experience for all.

Should teachers also make/pack their lunches for them? Fill their water bottles each day? No, if course not, this is a basic task that is the responsibility of the parent. As is naming property.

Teachers should not have to spend 20+ minutes every day checking the kids have got labels on everything.

The parents are being lazy and irresponsible
This is basic stuff that the parents should do if they want their child's property back.
. The price they pay for this is they will not get the jumper back, and if they do, they have to come to the uniform sale and pay £1.

Nah, we check everything.

Ermm, I clearly said UNNAMED items.

If it's named Sam Waffles I return it to classroom.

If it's named "Sam" and I have no way of knowing which of the 35+ Sams it belongs to, it will get put into uniform sale / charity.

There was a story on here, years ago, from a MNer who was a Primary school teacher. She had a child in her class who could identify any unlabelled item of clothing in her class, just by smell. It was a Godsend, apparently - any random, unlabelled items were handed to the child who sniffed them and correctly identified the owner!

Unfortunately this child was the exception rather than the rule, and is not particularly helpful for your situation, @HamandCheeseSandwich - I just wanted to tell the anecdote.

Yes, we have sniffers too 😂

Naming items doesn't help. I labelled all my DDs clothes but they still lost jumpers and cardigans that never showed up again.
By Y4 I was so pissed off that I just took an unnamed one out of the lost property box. Not my finest hour but clearly other parents were keeping my DDs (named) items.

DC2 lost his coat in reception. Both dc1 and 2 lost stuff regularly so I was at lost property every other week looking for stuff. When he was in year 6 the coat turned up again in lost property, still with his name in but significantly more used than it had been!

Their primary school had the system where you took a pe bag in and it stayed at school until half term. I don’t think I ever got a complete kit back at half term but I was always baffled as to why neither my children or the teacher had thought to mention that they only had one trainer or no shorts

@HamandCheeseSandwich in your OP
you didn’t say you would return named items to the classroom. You said you’d hang on to them till half term and then discard. That is the bit of the suggestion that a lot of people are finding unreasonable.

This, I think weekly isn't long enough. Fortnightly or monthly might work. I always named everything - even socks - but still lost stuff. Interestingly, it was at the private school that things got lost and didn't come back. Named things, I sometimes used to wonder how stuff going home in the wrong bag or whatever failed to ever make it back to lost property or name on label

@HamandCheeseSandwich Er, no you didn't. You said "If it has your name in, we will if course hold on to it...but only until half term. Then it's fair game."

And who puts just "Sam" in their uniform instead of a full name?! lol I can't believe that's common. No names, yes, but a first name, unlikely.

I name all my kids jumpers and they still go missing. Once his coat went missing which has his name on written in sharpie all over the inside of it. Never had them returned!

My dc's coat went missing on the last day of term before Xmas. Named, very distinct, not expensive but I was skint and could have hugely done without buying him another coat days before Xmas.

Turned up on the first day of term, one kid had gone home in 2 coats. Unbelievable.

I'm genuinely only half joking when I say this but do you remember those kids at primary school who used to sniff the lost jumpers and know who they belonged to?

As an adult with a terrible sense of smell, I'm still astounded but they really did seem to manage to locate the person quite reliably.

Get the sniffer kids in.

You are ridiculous and mean. A child could easily be sick for a week and have his stuff effectively thrown out. It costs you less effort to chuck it out less often, you sound like you just want to do it to be spiteful.

Just have a few plastic bins in the entry where the lost stuff gets gathered and let the parents sort it out themselves. Worked perfectly fine in the last three nurseries and schools my kids went to.

I don’t know if you can really overcome the ones who steal named clothing that their mum then puts on Vinted but I do think it should be a requirement that parents label their kids’ clothing.

I bought iron-on labels for my boy’s nursery clothes when he started. That was 2+ years ago, I still have some left over and they cost less than a tenner at the time. Alternatively there are Sharpies etc. No excuse for not doing it IMO.

However, I also think that it’s important that kids learn to take care of their things. I know they’re young but there’s no harm in telling them that their things cost money that Mummy/Daddy has to work for, and so it’s important to look after them properly and do their best to remember where things are. Surely people practice that at home with toys etc, so just extend it to school items.

PTA workers should be well within their rights to dispose of or repurpose anything not collected. If you aren’t missing it, you don’t need it.

This is such a weird attitude to me, you have the perfect opportunity to solve your own issue, teach the children how to be more self sufficient and the importance of naming stuff at school and yet you choose to be antagonistic and critical of the parents of your pupils. It’s so short sighted. Nothing will change till you change.

I think it could be simplified.

1: Cupboard with shelved boxes in alphabetical order, say A-F; G-L; M-R; S-Z
All NAMED items go in boxes.
Sort once a week and return to child or easy to find if parent asks.If not claimed, deal with each half term.

2: Separate area for unnamed items. If a child loses something and parent asks then they can "buy" an item from that box at set priced "fine".

End of term, all unnamed unclaimed items are sold off.

And the parents that are struggling financially get the bonus of saving money on uniform by buying from the second hand sale.