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?

To those saying kids need to learn; I fully agree, but I’m not sure they’re being “taught”. They’ve gone from what is evidently a very generous infant set up into an absolute monster sized school with hugely complex logistics. And that’s what I mean by hard on parents (thanks to the poster who assumed I must lead an otherwise gilded life 🤨), because they’re the ones who have to foot the bill when stuff doesn’t make it back. Yes stuff should be labelled, but this system isn’t working and that’s why I’m exploring what could be done. It’s all well and good saying look after your stuff, as I said I’m lucky I do have a careful child, but with 30 kids getting changed in small classrooms or under time pressure in the back of the hall to then get to registration on time, it feels almost inevitable things are missed. I guess partly I wish there was even a partial help e.g. if it’s straight after year 3 football, then take the stuff to year 3?

Actually, there is an eco council, and getting this lot re-homed would save an awful lot of wastage!

I remember my daughter would come out of the classroom having forgotten to bring her lunching. Then the teacher wouldn't let her go back for it and would roll her eyes that she'd forgotten it. She was in y2 at the time. Was especially annoying when it happened on a Friday as I knew I'd have a mouldy bag to clean on Monday.

I was a primary teacher myself a number of years ago and I'd always remind the kids "don't forget your coat/lunchbox/hat... whatever" as they were lining up to leave. And that was in Y4.

Yr 5 and Yr 6 children could easily handle this. They are more likely to know than the teachers. It could be built into the daily routine and you can have specific children as uniform monitors.

As someone said upthread, the same kids lose things over and over, as soon as they are returned. They won't stop losing things because they are in trouble or have previously lost things. Keeping their things in a cupboard won't help them and they are also the type of kids who are not capable of finding their stuff if they go through a heap of everyone's stuff. They need help. A system where a rep from every class goes weekly and collects for their class would work. Maybe buddy the repeat offenders with a more organised older child and they can learn to sort and identify things. Saying they should learn to mind their own stuff is oversimplifying and doesn't allow for the difficulty this poses for some children.

This is what I mean by I don’t think they’re being taught. Good quality teaching/coach in should explain what needs to happen, demonstrate it and then allow them to practice and repeat it. Parents can do everything under the sun possible at home, but I can’t replicate the complex school environment. Please don’t think I’m trying to add yet another thing to the staff workload, again, I still don’t have answers. But if it’s a challenge for the most capable, it’s nigh on impossible for the ones who find it difficult. Hence the mountain and hence where I may be able to help.

I don’t know if the responses would be different but I can tell you what happened at my child’s prep. There was a lost property box in reception that parents or kids could look through. Named items were usually returned to classrooms. In her senior school the PTA sorts it and puts a list of named items on Classlist. The children can then go and retrieve their item (parents not allowed).

Every half term our school empties the lost property bins onto tables which they put out for parents to search through. So there’s the opportunity to claim it back but staff aren’t spending time sorting. Anything not claimed goes to the PTA for their second hand uniform shop. Typically the PTA will return any obviously named items though this does take time and resource, albeit volunteer, which could be spent elsewhere. Always surprises me that there are coats, shoes, glasses etc that go unclaimed even when the stuff is put out. (The bins are accessible all the time if you’re searching for something specific)

Our school takes photographs of lost items and emails them. I feel like they could just return named items, it’s not a big school…

I'm sure they wouldn't object if you offered to go and sort it once a month. I actually sort lost property in my school and 95% of stuff isn't named. It's baffling to me that so many people don't even bother using a sharpie to pop a name in. I therefore don't believe that most of it is in fact named in your school, sorry!

I think this is one of those problems that just hits when a school is a certain size. Mine was small enough that you'd know, oh they're in so and so's class. And there wasn't tons of it. And the classroom wasn't that far away. But this stuff get exponentially worse as size increases. At least it goes to a central place. And if you are looking for a special item you only have to look at some of the stuff.

I agree a regular PTA sort out/display would be good though. The waste of lost property makes me sad.

Why don’t you get some parents together to sort it then? Or should only teachers give up their time to save you money?

I’m not sure my daughter’s school has a lost property (although it’s a tiny school) but they do have a massive section in reception of second hand uniform that everyone donates to. Inc barely used shores and coats.

Ours had exactly the same system of the black hole cupboard. You've no chance of getting something back from there!

Even worse they sell it all at the end of term so you need to buy back your own stuff!!

Ds lost an expensive Nike jumper on non-uniform day, it's never appeared I think possibly stolen as we've been a few times to hunt for it.

I don't expect teachers to sort it but I do feel there could be a better system. If it didn't pile up then it wouldn't be so difficult to keep on top of. Making it a weekly job for P7 is a great idea!