Feeling really, really p****d off at number of clothing items gone 'missing'

[maggiepy]

Since my DS started his new secondary school a brand new sweatshirt, a fleece jacket and now a whole PE kit has 'disappeared'. All items were labelled. Wherever possible I also used permanent marker on the labels on the clothes. It's not that my son was careless, the items were taken from the cloakroom and had disappeared when he went to get them at the end of the day.
Have been in weekly to search with DS but no joy. Hard to believe so many items can just go and starting to wonder if DS being targeted. Feel really cross and wonder what action I can take -any advice appreciated.

Are there no secure lockers for your ds to store his belongings in? I'm not surprised things go missing if it's from an open cloakroom.

It's quite possible that those things have gone missing without anyone deliberately targeting your son - some children just seem to lose things more often than others. However, if they're really being taken from the cloakroom that's a bit different. He's not losing them, they're being taken so not his fault if he's been told to leave them there.

Have you spoken to / emailed his form tutor about the missing things? in our school it does seem to help if the tutor gets involved.

I'm in charge of lost property for a middle school (year 5-8). It might be worth finding out who is in charge of lost property and making sure they are aware of your son's missing things. Hopefully then they'll keep a eye out for them. I hope they turn up soon :)

Thanks bumpybecky. There are a few lockers but all taken.

Emailed again today and asked for more action re PE kit, especially since to add to his troubles poor DS has Molluscum! Best that no one else wears his kit. But judging by stories from friends of the length it can take to get kit scabby legs may prove to be a good clue of where it went!?

oops meant to say... kit back...

It might be worth suggesting he carries everything around with him. My daughter will get a locker in due course, but for now has to carry everything around all day as they don't have cloakrooms. It's pretty tiring, but they get used to it - my daughter had her bag, pe kit and violin yesterday!

I've taken to writing DS's initials on fairly visible parts of the PE kit eg has to fasten lowest button on polo shirt to hide them so if someone has 'borrowed' them, they are a bit harder to wear.

Lottie4, going to suggest DS does the same -he plays the drums, thank goodness he wont have to carry those! Full of admiration for your daughter carrying that lot round.

iseenodust - great idea, going to do sneaky labelling thing.

DH threatening that if nothing turns up he will put notice in cloakroom telling kids not to 'borrow' DS's stuff as they are likely to catch nasty skin infection that if left untreated will cause various parts to drop off!