AIBU to think named items shouldn’t end up in school’s lost property?

[HJ40]

DC started at a Junior School (yr3-yr6) this term following on from Infants. It’s a huge school, 5FE. Quite spread out with PE, after school drama, his classroom, the library and after school care all in separate buildings. He is

forever having to get changed in different places, carry bags from one to another, change shoes etc.

I know the staff are stretched and busy and I know he needs to be responsible for his belongings (I’m lucky he’s actually very good), but the lost property “system” is to chuck everything into a cupboard whether it’s named or not. Is this normal? At his infant school named items were returned to class.

The cupboard is honestly a black hole. I went through it once and 75% of the stuff is named, but there’s so much in there it takes about half an hour to wade through.

This feels incredibly hard on parents, especially of year 3s when the change of school is such a culture shock. AIBU to think named items shouldn’t go in lost property?

Unless the school had appointed a person to manage lost property this is what happens.

even named, it still needs someone to look up the name what class they are in and then return it. That takes time.

not to mention, things are often continuously returned and lost, if it’s an old item the student has grown out of. And sometimes if parents have bought secondhand things the old name is there and there is no one to return it to.

We have a school of 490 primary children. If most children only lose two things a year that’s nearly 1000 items to sort, locate class number, get thing back to class. In an age when schools are run on threadbare staff - the kids need to look after things themselves or parents need to step up.

Since this year we have a small group of parents who meet on a Friday to sort through the labelled things and reunite them with their owner. They also post pictures on ClassList and encourage parents / children to rescue them.

whatever the answer it isn’t teachers spending their time rescuing kids stuff.

I think schools would have to pay someone to do this as their job and that’s just not realistic or practical. Plus plenty of children pass on their clothes so the name label is out of date.

I was on the PA of our kids primary school and we sorted their lost property for them. Once a month we had a rail with everything on it for parents to look through. Anything not claimed went to charity

Who is supposed to sort all this stuff, find out what class the child is in and take the lost item back to their class?

The answer is for children to look after their stuff and if they can't do that, then go and look for it in the lost property cupboard.

Who do you think has time to sort and return hundreds of items of lost property every term?

This feels incredibly hard on parents

So your answer is to get the already stretched teachers to do it?

The cupboard is honestly a black hole. I went through it once and 75% of the stuff is named, but there’s so much in there it takes about half an hour to wade through.

Exactly. The staff don't have time to go through a black hole of lost property. Our school is down to 50% permanent teachers and 50% supply this week due to illness. None of them have the time or capacity to sort through lost jumpers whilst running 3 nativities, Christmas parties, fairs, serving christmas dinner and making calendars. Our (very few) TAs are working with high need non-verbal pupils who can't be left alone for a second and our office lady was in tears today, about to resign as she is so overworked. The head was cleaning up sick half of the afternoon as the caretaker only works till 11 and, to be honest, she looked like she was going to cry by the end of the day as well.

If this bothers you so much, why don't you volunteer to go in and help them sort it out?

Where did you expect it to go?

You put names on items so that when you go look in Lost Property, you can identify yours. That's the whole point? If you never expected your child to lose them, you wouldn't need a name tag!

Of course teachers aren't going to sit around organising Lost Property into neat named piles for each child.

How kind of you to have offered to sort it all out!

My kids' school had lost property bins by the playground door. On a Friday keen year 6 kids were allowed to sort through it in their lunch break if they wanted to and take named stuff to the classes. Worked brilliantly all round.

If you don't have the time or inclination to go through everything, what makes you think the school staff do? It doesn't even belong to them.

I was thinking this too, very kind of OP to offer to go in every week to sort the clothes and return to correct class

Exactly. It all gets shoved in a cupboard in the library for over 1000 students here. They can go and look for it, otherwise it all gets laid out at the end of every half term. The librarian runs multiple clubs and decorates the library for any big event, so she simply doesn’t have time to send/take items all over to children.

I once saw a coat and checked for a name. It belonged to the brother of a child in my form who happened to be there so I gave it to her and the brother later said he no longer wanted it! A coat was delivered to my room last week, the child lost it last year.

Answers as expected! We were obviously very lucky with infants.

The school should have a system, whatever that system is. A student committee that do this weekly for example, or a volunteer system of parents. Even a segregated cubby alphabetically or by size or something so it's not all one mess. It doesn't have to be time consuming from a school resource point of view.

The cupboard is honestly a black hole. I went through it once and 75% of the stuff is named, but there’s so much in there it takes about half an hour to wade through.

Compare the half an hour (was it really half an hour?) to the cumulative time staff would spend on a daily basis reuniting kids with their named but carelessly abandoned stuff. I teach in a secondary school of over 1000 students. Kids leave stuff in my classroom pretty much every single day. The lost property store is at the other end of the school, which is annoying enough, so I let stuff accumulate for a while, then yake a big bagfull. There is no way on god's green earth I'm trailing round the school to find the owners of named items. I barely have time to go to the loo or have lunch as it is.

Sounds normal to me. I searched the school lost property cupboard every time ds lost anything. It was usually there. 😊

So what’s your solution?

Im a KS1 teacher and I clear the cloakroom everyday ensuring all items are given to children. Lots still lose things. They leave jumpers on the field, water bottles in the hall, coats on the fence. I have no time to find them.

I went through it once and 75% of the stuff is named, but there’s so much in there it takes about half an hour to wade through.

You said it yourself.

It takes forever to go through it.

I think the kids would be fine doing this on a rota

How incredibly entitled to think teachers should spend their time going through and sorting lost items! Why don't you organise something with some other mums- once a month you all go through the clothes and sort them by class. Oh you don't have the time? But the teachers do you mean? Seriously I feel so sorry for teachers putting up with this level of entitlement.

Who do you think should it OP?

I'm honestly wondering which paid member of staff you suggest taking away from their duties.

I'm really surprised at the responses. I too would have expected / assumed named items would make their way back to the owner. What's the point of naming them if not?

What's the point of naming them if not?

So that their owner can identify them in Lost Property.