Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Original poster

How to deal with item being stolen from DS ar school?

179 replies

LMonkey · 16/12/2018 15:31

We gave DS a smart watch which cost £35 for his 6th birthday a week ago. We forbade him from taking it to school as obviously its too good a toy to risk losing. He was caught out trying to sneak it in to school one day. The next day he successfully sneaked it in to school but the teacher, knowing that he wasn't meant to have it (as he'd seen us take it off him the day before) quite rightly took it and kept it on his desk all day. He gave it back to DS at the end of the day. DS says he put it in his book bag, however by the time he had come out to me (right outside the classroom) it was not in there. We went back in, looked around with the teacher, no luck. The teacher posted a message to all the parents on the online journal that evening to ask the parents to "ask the children if they had seen the watch". He also asked the children about it next day in class. Still nothing.

How do you think I should deal with this from now? The teacher said that he had done all he could, and I accepted that initially, but now what is bothering me is that one of my son's classmates has taken the watch, either stolen it or maybe hidden it, and it's not being dealt with?? It's definitely one of the kids in his class. Surely it can't just be forgotten about so that the kid who took it thinks he can just take stuff and get away with it?

I do realise its 6 year olds I'm talking about here but surely it needs to be addressed!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Soontobe60 · 16/12/2018 16:00

The most likely explanation is that your child has given the watch to his friend after the teacher returned it. You'd be surprised how many young children do this. I've had children sneak all sorts of odd things into school and give them to a friend! When challenged, they also almost always deny it. On the other hand, the vast majority of children of that age do not take things that don't belong to them.
The only thing you can be certain of is that your son did something that he knew he was forbidden to do. He behaved sneakily. That is what you should be more concerned about.

Original poster

LMonkey · 16/12/2018 16:01

He was given it back at the end of the day and put it in his book bag right before hometime. The only way if could have gone missing was someone taking it. He would not have broken it and thrown it away. If you had seen his reaction when he realised it was missing it was quite clear.

I guess I just think back to when I was at school (a long long time ago) and similar stuff happened, it was taken really quite seriously. I think now it's a lot more PC and the teachers are careful not to accuse, which may be the right way. Just sad for DS as he genuinely believes that all the children are his friends and would never do that.

No I absolutely don't expect school staff to spend time looking!! I was just doubting whether the kids had been addressed about it in a forthright enough way.

OP posts:

alansleftfoot · 16/12/2018 16:03

It isn't a 'fact' that it's been stolen, you're just presuming it has.

sackrifice · 16/12/2018 16:05

No I absolutely don't expect school staff to spend time looking!! I was just doubting whether the kids had been addressed about it in a forthright enough way.

What you gonna do, line em up and waterboard them?

sackrifice · 16/12/2018 16:05

He may have just dropped it.

Lesson learnt. Plus a smart watch for a 6 year old. Bloody ridiculous.

NaughtToThreeSadOnions · 16/12/2018 16:06

Hang on, it being stolen makes the least sense.

You say it was handed back to him, he put it

purplecorkheart · 16/12/2018 16:10

Did you or the teacher see him putting it into his bookbag?

Oblomov18 · 16/12/2018 16:11

Dropped?
Lost?
Broken then binned by OP's ds?

Really?
Come on.
it's been stolen.

eddiemairswife · 16/12/2018 16:12

And perhaps you should have made sure the watch was put where your son couldn't get hold of it and sneak it into school.

NaughtToThreeSadOnions · 16/12/2018 16:12

Hang on, it being stolen makes the least sense.

You say it was handed back to him, he put it in his book bag, all he did was walk out the door and by the time you/he looked it was missing. So for it to have been stolen some other child must have opened his book bag, had a good rummage through and found the watch - while your son was a) holding the book bag b) walking through school to get to you?!?! Unless there was a child hanging off your son i think thats partically unlikely dont you.

I agree it makes no sense that its been stolen, it was either never put in the book bag or tbh to be fair to your son and most likely just dropped out and got kicked away in the bussle of kids leaving school.

Its been dropped and lost, by your son. Lesson learnt i would be very careful about accusing other children of stealing when the presented situation doesnt make any sense for it to be have been stolen

RandomMess · 16/12/2018 16:20

Lots of stuff gets taken from school and parents are complicit in it...

Coats, uniform, trainers even though it's all named. Some parents have no morals and do as they please and school are powerless to act as judge and jury.

RedSkyLastNight · 16/12/2018 16:20

I also agree that if it was given to him to put in his bookbag literally before he left school then it's more likely he dropped it or gave it to someone else, than that someone rooted through his bookbag without him realising.

And as an aside, is a smart watch really considered to be a toy these days?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 16/12/2018 16:21

If he put it in his book bag right before hometime and it was gone before it got too you, then that’s a very small window of opportunity.

My money would be on him not actually having put it in his bag, but putting it down somewhere and thinking it was in his bag. Are you absolutely sure that isn’t the case.

Original poster

LMonkey · 16/12/2018 16:23

sacrifice not really any need to judge me for the present I bought for my son. It's a watch with games basically. He had wanted it for months. It's really not that out of the ordinary. It's not a mobile phone FFS.

Purple cork heart the teacher saw him put it in his book bag, he came out with DS to tell me he had taken it off him for the day, and then was very shocked when we found it wasn't in there

Eddiemairswife yes wouldn't that be the perfect world.

OP posts:

ilovesooty · 16/12/2018 16:30

I don't see what being PC has to do with this.
There is nothing more the school can do other than to reiterate that valuables have no place on the premises.

ringoargh · 16/12/2018 16:30

There’s so many possibilities

it was seen going in a book bag, but went in the wrong one in the hometime high level of movement
the book bag was turned upside down and it fell out

-ds not only lied about taking it, but has told a further lie for some reason and as acted out to avoid trouble -ds opened the book bag to fiddle with it when the teacher looked away Basically with 30 6 yr olds in the room all sorts happens. It could be down the back of a radiator or something. I’d be reluctant to fully trust my child’s word on these when you’d be so clear not to do something, on multiple occasions, yet he chose to ignore you. I’m not saying he’s a bad kid, some of mine went through lying stages, but it’s clear he’s not right now being honest

It’s a fairly hard thing to nick, as it can never be worn by anyone who knows ds or it’d be clocked.

HexagonalBattenburg · 16/12/2018 16:34

We've had something pinched from school this last week - it happens, school have kept an eye out and that's about all that I expect them to do (in our case it was a fiddle toy DD2 has on a lanyard around her neck - she took the lanyard off and left it somewhere to go play on the playground - lanyard's been returned minus the toy... someone's obviously seen it and thought "oooh cool" and wandered off with it... and DD2 has permission as part of her SN provision to have this with her).

Just one of those things that happens - I'm irked, because money doesn't grow on trees, but there's no point me fretting about it - more annoyed at the idea of pinching something that everyone knows belongs to DD2 - it might well drift back into school whenever it's discovered at the bottom of someone's sock drawer but I work on the assumption it's lost and just move on.

admission · 16/12/2018 16:43

If the teacher saw your son put the watch in his book bag, then the question becomes did your son put the book bag down anywhere before he came out of class with the teacher.
If he did not put it down anywhere you are left with one answer, which is that the teacher is mistaken or lying that he saw the watch being put in the book bag. I am much more inclined to accept that the book bag was put down somewhere, which then says somebody was clever enough to see the watch being put into the bag and then manage to open the bag and remove the watch without anybody seeing it happen. That also seems unlikely in the context of a class of 30 six year olds all milling about getting coats etc on.
I suspect that the answer is that your son may have put the watch in the wrong bag, so the obvious thing to do is to ask the teacher to again ask all parents to look in the book bags. I am sure that the school will be happy to do that so that they are seen to do everything possible to find this watch. However that and being vigilant to see if a similar watch suddenly appears on a child's wrist is really all that can be done.

BumDisease · 16/12/2018 16:50

Unless your son goes to school with the Artful Dodger, it's extremely unlikely the watch was stolen.

NaughtToThreeSadOnions · 16/12/2018 17:29

the teacher saw him put it in his book bag, he came out with DS to tell me he had taken it off him for the day, and then was very shocked when we found it wasn't in there

So how on earth has any child 'stolen' it. Dont you think the teacher who was clearly standing and walking right next to your son wouod have oh i don't know noticed the child putting their hand in your sons book bag??? I mean i would have thought your son would have noticed but ......

But yeah sure some 6 year old has stolen it. Or a 6 year old broke his parents rules, tried to take it to school one day, had it taken off him by his parents still not detered took it in to school the next day and had it removed by the teacher and then lost it...which 6 year old do you think that was OP ..... Ohhhhhhhh

CallMeRachel · 16/12/2018 17:41

Why didn't the teacher make sure he strapped it back into his wrist? Would have been the most sensible option.

Who's book bag was next to your ds'?

It seems most likely he's not actually put it in HIS own book bag, but someone's else's.

Do you have a class WhatsApp or Facebook group? Post about it being mixed up with another pupils belongings - absolutely don't throw the word 'stolen' into the fire pit. You'll be eaten alive!!
This is precisely the reason why 6 year olds can't be trusted with anything taken into school. A harsh but necessary lesson learned for your disobedient ds.

RavenWings · 16/12/2018 17:43

Why didn't the teacher make sure he strapped it back into his wrist? confusedWould have been the most sensible option.

Because it was the end of the day and the teacher had a million things to do (getting the classroom tidied, coats on kids, sending kids to after school activities, making sure everyone has their homework and lunchbox etc)? There are far more important things to do than supervise a child putting on something that shouldn't be in school in the first place.

4point2fleet · 16/12/2018 17:57

I agree these are the natural consequences for your DS who very wilfully (2 days in a row) defied you.

Maybe a kid stole his watch- but how could that possibly be proven now? There isn't anything school can do.

TBH, if the watch does turn up, I wouldn't give it back to DS. Put it away for 'later, when he can be more grown up'.

Original poster

LMonkey · 16/12/2018 18:00

It's amazing how supportive people on Mumsnet can be sometimes then other times there's people who are just a*holes.......

Did I say my son was right for disobeying my rules? Nope. Is this a valuable lesson learned? YES IT F**ING WELL IS.

I'm shocked by the fact that people have actually taken so much offence to the fact that I have 'dared' to say that the watch has been stolen

I'm also shocked that whilst taking offence people are hitting back with "well he shouldn't have taken it to school"! YES I KNOW!!! DOESNT EXCUSE ANYONE TAKING IT THOUGH DOES IT??!

The watch was given back to him and there was a short period of time before he left the classroom. His book bag has a big picture on it which distinguishes it from the others, so he is sure he put it in the right one. He was sitting next to two classmates who could have quite easily taken the watch when DS was distracted (and yes he gets distracted, he's 6)

OP posts:

CottonSock · 16/12/2018 18:00

My daughter's shoe went missing, I didn't think it had been stolen. I still think you are jumping to conclusions. If my 5 year old took something to school and it didn't come home, I wouldn't point the.finger at her classmates

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Swipe left for the next trending thread