Theft in school not being taken even vaguely seriously. Really annoyed. What do I do?

[Tentaclesa]

Dd's school does not have lockers. They cart all of their stuff around with them in a rucksack.

Dd has to walk 1/2 mile into town from school to get the bus, so I like her to wear a coat to do this, as the weather is awful. I caved at Christmas and bought her a nice, £70 fleece lined coat instead of the tatty old thing that she loathed. It therefore does not fit in her rucksack, as that is stuffed with 8 lessons' worth of books.

It was named, and no different to the ones that the other children were wearing, but is branded. It "went missing" in 2 days (she was rushed at the end of a lesson, forgot it, and by the end of the next period it had vanished). School refused to let me or dd search lost property, but the search that the school conducted said it was not there. I went back on three occasions to ask them to look again, but nothing ever showed up. School did not bat an eyelid and said that it had probably been stolen. She then had to go a month without a coat in pouring rain while I saved up to replace it. This one has lasted a week. It is a different coat, and was named more conspicuously. It was also in very "girly" colours, so as to make it a) more conspicuous to dd, and b) to only appeal to 50% of the school population. She left it in a classroom to go and sign in to form, and by the time she had signed in it had gone. School again are totally blasé and taking no action re. letting dd email round to see if anyone has seen it, or to try and find out what has happened to it.

I am utterly, utterly furious. Dd is hysterical and feels like she has let me down terribly.

School acted entirely the same way about the theft of a phone from another pupil during a form registration, taken from the pupil's blazer pocket by another member of the form. Dd says that it is happening all the time.

I want to storm into the deputy head's office, but need real-life perspective on this first.

Can I say thank you, to all of you. The other bit I hate when things like this happen are that I can't get (too) mad at dd, but there is no-one to sound it out with as I am home alone with her, so then I sit and stew on it, and it becomes a Massive Thing. Talking through it rationally has helped so much (as has finding out that other people's children do it too, and it is just as frustrating for other people!).

You are so great, thank you!

I expect a school to allow a parent/pupil to search every lost property box. I expect every teacher to be reminded to put all items in lost property if unnamed. I expect all children to be taught the consequences if they are caught stealing. Possibly even the police brought in for an assembly. I expect the class where the items went missing to be asked about the item, with the teacher specifically asking any suspected individuals. I expect anyone caught to be permanently excluded. I expect the school to be implementing a zero tolerance policy, especially in Y7. I expect the school to treat the matter seriously rather than blow off a parent. I expect the school to warn every parent the consequences if their child is caught, perhaps perusing a prosecution. If the problem is endemic then the school should consider security cameras in every classroom.

Apart from the cameras these actions do not cost money or use a lot of time. What cost to the school when theft in Y7 mushrooms every year.

Of course children shouldn't bring in expensive stuff (why aren't expensive items banned?) but that is not an excuse to ignore theft against vulnerable children. This is a form of bullying and the cost of the item is irrelevant.

I'm a maths teacher, not Columbo.

But if an item gets left behind in a classroom and subsequently goes missing then narrowing down the list of suspected individuals could reach the hundreds.

But they don't know if/ when it was stolen so what should teachers do? Ask all students? And when they all deny it, what then?

I expect anyone caught to be permanently excluded.
That would never happen.

Bolognese

The schools that I have worked in encourage pupils to look through lost property, we have regular days where lost property is laid out in the hall so that pupils can look though it.

Parents can look through the box if they book an appointment (safeguarding and all that) to do so , or when they have booked an appointment to see someone in the school.

All the rest is done apart from targeting specific pupils as that would be wrong and of course excluding as there are rules to be followed.

Lets not forget that children leave stuff all over the place, it could take a while to get to lost property,

Lets also not forget that a lot of this stuff turns up and hasn't been stolen.

I can think of quite a few occasions where the "thief" doesn't even know that the "stolen" property is in their bags as their "friends" have put it there as a joke.

As for cameras, they cost a lot to put in place especially if the school doesn't have the infrastructure to wire them in to a central repository, and it does take a lot of time to go through the hour of footage to find out what is going on, because the person doing this will also be going through footage on god knows how many other things.

Just an FYI.

The most I can do is ask the pupils if they have seen whatever is missing, and I can safely say that if I asked if anyone had seen a black (or whatever) P.E bag half the pupils hands would go up as that is what they own, the same with superdry coats and many other branded products.

I'm so so sorry for you both, OP.

Ds1 is in Y8 and has a coat that cost about £75, too. I don't let him take it in to school - despite his protests as he really loves it. To his credit he hasn't lost anything so far and is really careful, despite no lockers and his scattyness at home.

We have been lucky. What we did was buy him a very cheap, similar looking coat in a sale, not the same brand but it looks a bit like it. He takes that with him, and wears the nicer one at home when it;s hols or weekends.

In your position I would be staking out the school buses when I had a day off, and also looking on ebay locally to try and find the other coats.

Not much help but huge sympathy. Don't buy another expensive one

I had no idea casual theft was tolerated in schools. I realise I'm being pfb but I want my children to go to a school where this isn't the case. If you can't trust your classmates there is something very wrong

at my place EVERYONE wears coats.. Normal state school

lol at ' condoning theft'

HOW?

Bolognese - I wonder what would happen if you were to call the police and say that your child's anorak's GPS tracking device had shown you that it had been removed to the other side of town therefore could they go and get it back and ensure that the school-aged child in the household was excluded from school please?

My DS had someone else's PE kit for half a term before he deigned to bring it home to wash (yuk) and I realised that it didn't have his name in. No idea where his ended up.

Sympathy though OP. I work in a secondary school and some of the year 7s find the transition really tricky. It does get easier.

No lockers?! That mustbe a heavy bag to carry about all day. I work in a school and if a pupil loses anything (eg. coat/P.E kit) they go through lost property with a member of office staff. The school I work at would not be so dismissive about items being taken by other students.

As your DD has SEN do you have any contact with the SENCO?

As your DD has SN and is obviously having difficulty with looking after her belongings for a whole day which is a common issue would not a talk with the Senco be a good idea to see if there are any measures that can be put in place for her.

Land's End online clearance department is a really good place to look for a bargain coat. They often do flash sales as well, with an extra 25% off. Something fleece-lined but waterproof that can be bundled up and stuck into the net on the side of a rucksack might fit the bill.

How despairing of the state of education. Why would anyone want to send their children to a school where theft is rife and teachers just shrug and say "what do you want me to do I'm not Columbo." I would imagine that attitude is just the same for bullying, learning and any number of issues then.

I am glad the schools in my city/area (where theft is not tolerated) are nothing like the ones described here.

Just me that would expect a school to provide pupils with someplace safe to leave their coats and outerwear during the day?

Theft isn't rife at my school, Bolognese, why on earth would you think it was? Such low expectations. Kids forgetting their stuff in classrooms, however, is a problem.

My job is to teach maths. Parents would complain mightily if I kept being taken from that to do other stuff, like hunt down missing pencil cases.

I am staggered by the no lockers concept. My children stagger in to school with their backpack, sports bag, instrument and that is with all but last night's homework worth of book living at school already. How on earth could they carry that around all day - my little one can barely lift it from the car to school door.

I ain't see how no lockers could conceivably work and feel terribly sorry for children having to manage that way

I doubt theft is tolerated anywhere bolognese but losing your coat is not necessarily theft.

No but if it's lost and people are generally honest then it tends to come back.
I work in an open plan office. I leave my handbag under my desk if I go to meetings or whatever. I don't even worry about it. The thought of studying in an environment where you have to be stressing about people trying to steal from you (and presumably other things) is not a pleasant one.

Michaelahpurple My son is in Year 11 and it's only this Winter that he's worn a coat to school because he's started to walk for exercise rather than get the bus. A coat's always been one more thing to carry around though, and it's even more difficult if it's raining and they're lugging wet coats around.

The only time they get a locker at his school is in sixth form, and even then they sometimes have to share.

Wonders if nobles found coat is my dds. Hers was an optional school coat my Mum bought. No other kids in lower years who it might have fit had one, no one has worn one since who it would fit and no teacher or member of staff have ever found it. No one would have stolen it for home.

Stuff does get stolen though , in primary dds coat was stolen and label cut out and parents often free picked from lost property in school and bragged about taking labels out.

I bought dd a regatta waterproof for year seven,it was cheap folds up really small and lives in the bottom of her bag. It's not at all trendy so not likely to be stolen but keeps her dry and warm enough over her uniform.She has a nice coat then to wear at home.Could your dd have similar to take away the stress of having to watch her coat in school?

Poor girl and how stressful for her - it sounds as though she left the second coat for a very short period of time and the first coat for only one lesson. I would certainly expect the HOY to give a general talk about theft/practical jokes to the year group. If the coats were taken as part of a practical joke then they could be stuffed behind something deliberately - either in the classroom or in the corridor outside.

Was it a superdry coat?