Theft in primary school

[Ereynolds]

I am writing this to ask for advice on an issue with my sons primary school. My son is about to go into Primary 4 and to be brutally honest I am extremely disappointed in the school. My son has had numerous things stolen from him over the years in that school. In Primary school he had his jacket stolen from his peg and his school shoes stolen from his slot under his jacket (they have been told they need to wear plimsoles indoors), in Primary 2 he had numerous jumpers stolen (and yes I am saying stolen for everything because I have labelled every single piece of his clothing and shoes and not one has shown up in lost property) and last year alone between the time they were in till Christmas he had one jacket stole just before Christmas and after lockdown at the beginning of the year he had his replacement jacket stolen, I went to a meeting with the deputy head and the receptionist suddenly produced the jacket that had been stolen before Christmas and yes it had been stolen as the every single label that was inside the jacket had been cut out and where they had found it was in the medical room. The medical room is only used for serious injuries in this school as was explained by the Head teacher and my son has never had a serious injury. The school has been extremely lax about this and basically are dismissing it. One of the other parents in my sons class actually had to confront a parent whose child had stolen her sons jacket which was quite unique looking and the parent of the child had the absolute cheek to walk to the school with her child wearing this jacket, the parent did prove that it was her sons jacket as she had written her sons name on the inside of the sleeve cuffs and on the underneath of the hood. The parents in the school don't care as there has been numerous cases of children's clothes going missing and never been handed back. The reason I am writing this post is if anyone has any advice for me on how to make sure my sons stuff doesn't get stolen again as he is actually petrified to take anything off in that school now because of this. He won't take his jumper off even if he is boiling and he won't take his jacket off outside either. The last jacket actually got taken off the back of his chair in full view of his teacher and the schools attitude was basically so what?? I have labelled everything and written his name in permanent marker but that's what I did the last few years and it doesn't seem to make a difference. Thanks in advance.

Lost loads when smaller checked list property once a week pegs every few weeks found them in the pta nearly new sale months later with one label cut out but the secret one still in
Now have a rule that if you take it off it must go in a school bag.
Warmer days they stay in the bag.
A couple of times have seen parents go to the lost property box pull out one of the newer looking jumpers and say I will take it anyway
Also found a bike helmet in the box belonging to a child two years after he had left the school.

@CoffeeWithCheese

Friend's daughter has lost every single one of her logged cardigans to theft this year (they're not in any of the lost properties) - the fad seems to be to nick the logoed ones to replace their own un-logoed ones.

I'll be bloody crying if stuff gets nicked this year - logo cardigan with coloured bands through the waist and cuffs = expensive as hell and the order times on them from the only supplier is like a month and a half for the older kid sizes!

Same. DD came home without her jumpers on numerous occasions. I was also offered a jumper by the teacher which wasn’t mine! Now they want us to purchase an additional thicker jumper for extra cold days. It also has a bloody logo. I’m not doing it, I’ll be getting a fleece or whatever from Primarni!

YANBU write his name absolutely everywhere on the inner of his clothing should hopefully stop them when I was in primary from 2003-2010 I was active in competitive sports and would regularly have to bring my items with me to school and they were always getting stolen! (same happened to my younger sibling who was also active) my mum ended up speaking to staff who locked my items into the cupboards during school days, about 5 years before I started our primary school moved to a larger location in the middle of a new housing estate. Our family had attended since the 60's and thefts had increased since the move for multiple family friends. Just be very careful now what you send into school now.

Definitely second getting initials added to the front of everything. I used a local firm that applies vinyl lettering to the front when my DD’s branded sports kit kept growing legs…never had a problem again. It was also cheaper to initial everything than replace one item.