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?

@HJ40
What did the school say when you offered to help sort out the named list property and return it?

Or have you not offered and just assumed someone else will do it?

Ours all goes in an open tub in a shelter shed. Named or not. I think most kids just don't bother looking, and parents don't have time.

They lay them out at the end of term and there's always heaps! My DC rarely lose anything but I don't send expensive items that get stolen (DD's purple glue sticks were taken last year!)

DS once brought home a hat I'd searched lost property for multiple times. A year later. I'd love to know where it went!!

You’re supposed to teach your child to look in lost property themselves when they lose something.

Everyone saying ‘but who has the time to sort through hundreds of items’…. It never needs to get to the point of being a cupboard full of hundreds of items of clothing. It would be very easy and not at all time consuming to pop it to the right class when first found (if it’s named). Anything not named should of course end up in the cupboard of doom. It would take the same amount of time to read the label and take it to the classroom as it would to take it to the cupboard.
It doesn’t need a rota of volunteers to sort through it once a month FFS. I’ve never had a school with such a ridiculous system.
OP, you’re not asking too much at all. But like others on this thread, it sounds like school are of the opinion that no one should ever do anything remotely helpful or useful even if it would be more efficient overall.

Yep. When my dd came out without her PE kit I sent her straight back to find it. She moaned and said it'll still be there tomorrow she can get it then. But we all know she would 'forget' again and it would be pushed to the back of the narnia cupboard.

If we teach kids that their mum or even staff will look on their behalf then they're not going to bother looking after their belongings.

Sounds like you feel that strongly about it, that you should volunteer for an hour a week to reunite pupils with their belongings.

Most parents would just tell their child to look where they think they left it then in lost property.

I agree our junior school is the same. They even chuck in pack lunch boxes in there to rot

DGS school brings out the list property box every Friday after school for parents to look through and retrieve the kids belongings. It's less than 5 mins to take the box to main door and replace it in cupboard ( hopefully depleted) after parents have been through. Anything not collected by term end goes to secondhand uniform stall

This - at my children's primary school parent volunteers did this, but teaching staff made it very clear that from year 1 onwards they were not cloakroom attendants and wouldn't be spending time looking for lost possessions including clothing, or trying to find owners for abandoned items. The lost property was available for parents to go and dig through at the end of the day, or the volunteers sorted it towards the end of each half term.
If nobody is volunteering now that part will be gone (a lot of things done by volunteers weren't being done at all by the time my youngest was about to leave as fewer people volunteered for this type of quiet, routine stuff requiring a regular commitment (people still volunteered for fund raising and being representatives...)

It would be very easy and not at all time consuming to pop it to the right class when first found (if it’s named).

Who should do this? If staff are with children (lunchtime supervisors, first aid etc.) they cannot leave children unattended to take items to classrooms. If they are not with children they will be either on a break or preparing for their afternoon lessons/activities.

There are no staff milling around school, they are all busy.

Your argument rests on there only ever being one lost item - not six, five named and from different classes although it turns out two of those have the names of the older cousin/ mum's friend's child who passed it down to the current owner, and one unnamed and requiring taking to lost property...

Why on earth would you think that it's the teacher's job to look after your child's clothes????

The problem is the children who lose jumpers in the first place are the same children who just lose them again immediately when you return them to them. It literally reached the stage where I stand over children as they zip said jumper into their bag (in KS2). I have a small class and do return items whenever I can but I'd say 95% of lost jumpers belong to the same handful of children.

I also take lost property outside and often not a single parent looks.

This feels incredibly hard on parents,

What sorting through a lost items box for your children's items is incredibly hard? How easy must your life be generally if this even registers as a hardship.

I worked as a lunchtime supervisor and one of my colleagues was paid an extra half hour to sort lost property and return to child if it was labelled. She left and I said I'd do it but was told they weren't going to replace that half hour a day to save money and the reception staff would deal with it. This just meant there was a large box nr reception where everything got chucked.

I did always try to collect stuff round the playground and shout out names for the labelled items but there was always sooooo much unlabelled.

I haven’t said I think teachers should do it. I’m asking what’s normal, because this seems utterly mad, but I also can’t think what the best answer is. And yes, once I have the idea I will go and offer to do it, because I am that sort of person. But there’s bugger all point in me spending an age sorting it, for it just to return to the same state in a few weeks. Even one bucket per year or per five surname initials would be an improvement, but those themselves require an initial sort which isn’t resourced.

well a great volunteer oppurtunity for a parent/s to go through and help, lots of parents want the school to do everything so their child or themselves dont have too so parents can help

Our school has cubbies in the hall with stuff by type - so a cubby of water bottles, gloves, lunchboxes, jumpers etc. parents or kids can go look in it if they’re missing something. At some point it’s thrown away I think. I really struggled to get in to try to find things as my kids were in breakfast and after school club when they were younger so just had to rely on my children finding it. My daughter was quite on top of it. My son… well, eventually he just didn’t have any jumpers left but then he grew out of everything anyway.

Part of the challenge is the size of the school, 5FE is huge for primary.

However, from year 3 they should be able to look after or at least attempt to find their items. Ours have a big covered box in playground that all items go into and then children can go into it to find their lost items. I have 1 in year 5 and 1 in year 3. The youngest lost 1 PE hoodie last year, oldest has never lost anything significant. Sometimes they mix up items and come home with each other's jumpers, and then they just swop them the next day.

I’ve not been a year 7 form tutor that many times but my goodness, the number of emails from parents complaining that their child had lost their coat and could I help them find it? Delete.

That is how our school handled it. Unless it was something critical like an inhaler or an assistance device, it got chucked in the cupboard.

they did lay them out nicely on parents nights and things like that so we wouldn’t all be trying to get into the cupboard. At that point it was very easy to browse and grab your items.

honestly, since I have a child with executive function issues that is prone to losing things, anything that really mattered got an AirTag.

I learned to keep duplicates of other key items that could be purchased cheaply if I wasn’t pressured for time.

she eventually did get better about it. Still not great, but better.

I’m not sure any school would have a person designated to sort through lost property. It would be an extra to their job. That sounds like such an admin heavy task for one person to do on top of all their other duties.

This term it has become clear to us that if you use wraparound and have a child in KS2, even one of the youngest, who isn't an effective searcher, you're basically on your own. Yes I would love to search the cloakroom myself, but they're obviously not going to let me in to do so.

Sorting by type would be a good easy way to start. Thanks for the idea!

I haven’t said I think teachers should do it.

You also haven't said who you think should do it.

If not teaching staff then who, in a school setting, do you think is available to do it?