Missing over £100 of sports kit - not in lost property - what to do?

[MrsTaraPlumbing]

I am more than a bit cross about the missing kit that has not turned up and is not in lost property.
Half went missing more than 2 weeks ago and was reported to the PE dept. the rest disappeared today!

It may be that my son left it somewhere in school but surely it would turn up by now unless someone has taken it - ALL of it is clearly labelled.

So is there a thief?
Should the police be called!!!! Should the school be responsible? - It definitely went missing at school not on the way home as I was at the gate to collect him!
I may be over reacting - I'm very cross.

Depending on the circumstances and the school is not at fault you may be able to claim from the school's insurance. It may be difficult to show that your son wasn't careless though.

Sorry that should be the school is at fault.

Ours does a massive clearout at the end of term, and sometimes missing bits do appear in there. Its all piled up on tables by student services, root through and take what yours. Or if you're me, and dd1 has had a PE fleece gone astray, take any PE fleece on the table that fits, so long as it isn't named.

When is the end of your term? Can your son get away with waiting until then?

Where was it meant to be when it went missing?

By that I mean, where is your son's responsibility in this? Depending on his age, he should have some responsibility for his own belongings. The school cannot be expected to keep track of every item of kit.

I'd be very surprised if the school's insurance policy covers personal belongings. Even if it did, there would be an excess charge which is unlikely to be less than £100.

Having said that, I'd see if the school can help find the lost property.

Both times the wgole kit was in the gym bag.
The first gym bay was pale blue
second was bright yellow.
Deliberately NOT the school's official gym bag so couldn't have been picked up by someone else by accident.

Yes could well be my son is careless. But i'm not talking about an odd sock. Both gym bags had a set of trainers in + other bits of sports kit.

Are you sure lost property has been checked properly? Children seem surprisingly reluctant to do it. A frienDS's DS's v expensive shoe was missing without trace until the day that her dh, in desperation, offered the boy cash if he found it i.e. Suddenly it was worth his while to make some effort t find it!

DS1 had a brand new pair of football boots "disappear" in the first week of year 7.

I think schools should provide proper lockable storage, but unfortunately they don't.

What are the kids supposed to do, carry everything on their person all day long?

This is annoying isn't it? I have had this happen once, DS looked, teachers looked, I looked, it had vanished in to some sort of PE kit vortex. Only to miraculously turn up about three weeks later out of the blue!
Not that this is any help, but I understand your frustration.

DS PE kit vanished (left at his IT lesson) for over 2 weeks. He only has 1 IT lesson/fortnight so if he had missed that for any reason, he still wouldn't have found the kit for another fortnight (or longer if school hols interrupted).

Tell your son to go back to every classroom he was in that day. Chances are, they are under a desk somewhere. Almost every day, a pupil leaves their PE kit in my classroom. I usually try to hand it in to Reception ASAP, but sometimes that isn't possible till the next day.

when my DS was in Year 7 , his PE kit went missing, he came home and swore blind that someone must have taken it as he hadn't left it anywhere etc etc. I was as kit included new trainers, new PE kit, abojt £100 in total.

Then I went into our local shop later in the evening to buy milk, and the shopkeeper handed over my son's PE kit - someone had found his bag sitting at the bus stop and had brought it into the shop so it could be returned to me.
I wouldn't necessarily take their word for it when they say they haven't left it anywhere ....

Yes I don't doubt my son has left it somewhere on two occasions!
The second time I met him from school so it must be in the school.

After PE he has break then science that's all.

After cross examining my son I find he half heartedly looked around the class room. So it could still be there.
He looked in play ground & lost property BUt did not go check the changing room!

The other half of the kit has been missing about 3 weeks now - I have asked Head of PE about it but I do wonder if my son really has been back to that class room (science is in in a different room each time).. And as I didn't collect him that day I wonder could he have dropped it on the short walk home.

At the moment I have told him he will have to pay for the replacement stuff out out his XMAS money!
I know it is mean but he needs to learn to look after his valuables.
I did label every thing so clearly that there is no reason for it to not be returned if found.

He has a locker but didn't use it!

You'll look back on these incidents as quite minor when he's older. When my son was in Y7, he lost his PE kit - twice - on the bus. This year, he's lost all his art GCSE coursework, and he hasn't got it back!!!

Hopefully your son now realizes if he is lucky enough to have a locker, he must use it.

Lockers were late being issued at my daughter's school this year, so she was having to carry her PE kit around all day. She came home without it and I told she had to have a good think overnight when she last had it and then search within school. Quite a lot of their classes are locked, so she traced her tutors and asked them to open up. All were very obliging and fine with her about doing that. Turns out she'd left it in the music room. At that time she would have picked up her violin to carry for the rest of the day, so probably felt like she had everything. Ask him to think about if anything different happened to make him leave it anywhere other than a class. If he leaves it with friends to go to the toilet (as my daughter does), can he really trust them. Also, suggest he checks the lost property bins and asks his registration tutor for ideas of where items could be.

Do you have something that would be half acceptable as a PE kit, ie home trainers, plain top and shorts? If so, I'd send him in with those for a couple of weeks with a covering letter, explaining PE kit has been lost and you want to allow a couple of weeks for it to turn up before buying any more.

One thing I would say it that if he is in Year 7, they do have a lot to think about the first few months, so yes the PE kit does need to found, but try and make suggestions helpful rather than a telling off (which is easy to do!).

"What are the kids supposed to do, carry everything on their person all day long?"

3littlefrogs this is exactly what my y7 kid has to do all day, every day. Huge backpack, huge PE kit bag, and heavy coat (wet heavy coat, if it's been raining). He's quite tall, but some of the y7s are tiny. It can't be good for their backs.

I'm sorry the OP's son has had stuff lost/nicked, but I think my son's school's solution to this is no solution at all. (Not that I think anyone was suggesting this as a remedy.)

When I was at school, long, long, long ago we just left everything hanging on our pegs and it was quite safe.
Mind you I think we were all poor and no-one had anything worth taking!

Good news.
A few days after loosing the second pile of stuff he went back to that same classroom - there it was - where he left it.

More good news.
Yesterday (about 5 weeks or so after loosing first bag) a boy from a different year group gave it to him. We have no idea where it has been but at least it is all home now.

My son does have a small locker and some kids in his school have nothing - like some of yours.

I do wonder what they are supposed to do it they come in with big wet rain coats, etc.

What a relief! Just goes to show it's worth labelling everything and there are honest people around.

at my dcs secondary school they have to leave kit in the cloakroom and so much stuff goes 'missing' because the kids 'borrow somebody else's kit if they forget their own, rather than get a detention.