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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Does your kids (state) school have lockers? And are they a good thing

71 replies

DownToTheSeaAgain · 22/11/2021 08:47

A group of parents on our PTA have, in response to a tsunami of lost property from kids who have to carry it around everywhere, been campaigning to have lockers in the school.

They want some research -

Does your secondary (state) school have lockers? Do your dc use them? Can you let me know the name and/ or rough location of the school.

Thanks

OP posts:

PettsWoodParadise · 22/11/2021 09:00

Yes. Corridors are narrow snd crowded so school Insist students to leave bags in lockers and they are not permitted to carry bags around school. Timetables taped to inside of lockers etc. Works well. Couldn’t imagine DD’s school functioning so well without all students having a locker.

PettsWoodParadise · 22/11/2021 09:01

Sorry forgot to include name of school: Newstead Wood School, location, Orpington (Greater London).

megletthesecond · 22/11/2021 09:03

Eldests school doesn't. It's a nightmare on PE and cadet days.

Youngests does. Its handy for dumping PE kit in.

Theunamedcat · 22/11/2021 09:03

No and it's shit kids have to drag everything around with them including PE kit which they inevitably lose because its two bags to carry around so they store them in a hub area which my son got locked out of one day and couldn't get his kit

West midlands

Isthisjustnormal · 22/11/2021 09:04

Yes. My eldest has one and has literally never used it and is was at the wrong end of the school so added to time rather than improving. Didn’t bother with my youngest who has been fine. State school in south east.

steppemum · 22/11/2021 09:09

2 schools in Stroud.

boys school, have lockers, all year 7's get them.
They are very hit and miss in terms of use. But this is mainly due to the placement, if you have to walk back half way across the school to pick your bag up at the end of the day, then you don't use it.
My ds didn't take up the option to get one in year 8, and hasn't had one since.

girls school, they all have lockers, at all ages and they are central in the school, easy to access.
They keep their pe kits there, often for weeks at a time
They use them for coats, and bags they need to bring in etc.
They are useful and well used.

The girls also tend to take a coat because they have a locker to put it in.

IsThisNameTaken · 22/11/2021 09:12

SW London - DD used hers al the way through secondary, found it very useful. DS had them in year 7 and 8 but haven't been allowed to use them since (now year 10) due to covid

williremember · 22/11/2021 09:18

Can apply for a locker when start at school. Very useful for pe kit £5 deposit for locker key.
Large Midlands comprehensive.

steppemum · 22/11/2021 09:20

one school - £10 key deposit
other school - provide your own padlock

SusannaQueen · 22/11/2021 09:29

I've torn my hair out on this subject over the years.
Yes DD's school has lockers, but there aren't enough and some are in really inconvenient places. It's first come, first served. DD has had one that was in the science labs, where they couldn't access it out of lesson time, but would get into trouble disturbing a lesson. One that was located in an outside open air corridor, so it would get condensation.
Some years she didn't have one, they get told off for having more than one bag, told off for carrying coats, but they aren't allowed to wear them and there is no where to leave them. Teachers expect them to bring so much to lessons and they get told off for not having everything. Then there is walking between school sites carrying a bag that the can barely lift. DD ended up so anxious over it all, that she does get guaranteed a locker now.

Sorry a bit of a rant there. So my tips are - Make them large enough, put them somewhere warm and accessable, give every child one. And vent them through the doors not the base of each locker. DD's paint leaked into the locker below and onto their PE kit! They have a variety of locks here, some require us to provide a specific lock, some are combination and some have keys. We had to provide deposits for the keys. The ones where we had to provide a lock were the worst hassle all round.

TeenMinusTests · 22/11/2021 09:30

Yes. £5 per year. Hants comp. Not enough for everyone, but enough for everyone who wants one.

But exercise books kept by class teachers, and PE kit can generally be stored in tutor rooms.

DDs used them for PE kits to save lugging back and forth (walked to school), and DD1 also used for laptop.

ArcheryAnnie · 22/11/2021 09:37

No lockers, despite pleas from parents to install them in the (wide) landings of the school. Absolute nightmare - the weight of the bags with all the books they were required to have every day was really excessive, and they had to carry them up and down between 5 floors. I am absolutely certain that it has contributed to long term back problems- that massive weight constantly on a growing spine.
Nowhere to put coats, and they weren't allowed to hang them on the backs of the chairs, so they went (wet) on the floor.

They were supposed to have a separate PE bag but that weighed a kilo even empty, so I'd stuff his PE kit into his regular bag, against regulations.

Stupid thing is that the school was a new build, and they could have been designed in from the start. London.

Ilovewillow · 22/11/2021 09:45

Yes, in Hants
We paid £27.50 in yr 7 and that's for the 5 yrs - if you decide after yr 7 the price goes down each yr. my daughter has one but never uses it for for books but she does put her PE kit in there. She then has to store her musical instruments in the music dept. As the lockers are too small for the instruments - clarinet and violin. Definitely worth having though as she does PE in several days (GCSE PE) and a couple of extra curricular sports.

catterycatcat · 22/11/2021 10:45

@ArcheryAnnie

No lockers, despite pleas from parents to install them in the (wide) landings of the school. Absolute nightmare - the weight of the bags with all the books they were required to have every day was really excessive, and they had to carry them up and down between 5 floors. I am absolutely certain that it has contributed to long term back problems- that massive weight constantly on a growing spine. Nowhere to put coats, and they weren't allowed to hang them on the backs of the chairs, so they went (wet) on the floor.

They were supposed to have a separate PE bag but that weighed a kilo even empty, so I'd stuff his PE kit into his regular bag, against regulations.

Stupid thing is that the school was a new build, and they could have been designed in from the start. London.

I don't get the thing with coats

. They're necessary in winter - from now probably to the end of feb? So what are kids supposed to do with them if they can't hang them in their chair and they sing have lockers??

DS is yr7. No lockers (that I'm aware of). At the moment they wear PE kit all day on PE days and aren't carrying any books around at all so it's not a problem. I know that will change as he moves up the school, though.

Ekofisk · 22/11/2021 10:51

Scotland - brand new school, small number of lockers available, offered in S1 for a fee to cover all 6 years. Can’t remember how much it was, somewhere around the £50 mark I think. We didn’t bother.

South of England - new school (a few years old), no lockers.

It is a pain when they have a full bag of books and then PE kit to go in on top.

Corneliusmurphy · 22/11/2021 10:52

Previous school in Ashford, Middx yes but rarely used (by dd anyway) as they weren’t in a location which made them easy/convenient to get to after registration and then before P.E etc

Current school in Hants no. Parents have asked on Facebook and the consensus seems to be there’s no room for them.

LindaEllen · 22/11/2021 11:06

Our local high school does have them, but they're dotted all over the school and are allocated alphabetically in year groups. This means that you could have a locker right on the other side of the school, even though none of your lessons or form group are there. So lots of the kids don't even use their locker. In my day you got a locker in your form room, which you'd visit twice a day for registration, and that was perfect.

North West.

Cryingbutstilltrying · 22/11/2021 11:12

Yes, you can rent one annually at dds state school. £18 per year!
Lockers are located all over and you choose the area when you rent, so hers is near her form room as she goes there at least twice a day.
She keeps PE kit, umbrella, coat in hers. Doesn’t have many books that need to leave the classrooms.
Last year when kids were wearing PE kit all day I think they got used a lot less, but it’s back to normal now.
Market town in Home Counties, approx 2000 pupils.

MrsAvocet · 22/11/2021 11:18

Ours are provided by a private company. I can't remember the cost. £17 a year rings a bell but I could be mixing that up with something else.
There's a locker hall but some year groups are in different locations around the school. They are all fairly central though. Within your allocated area you can pick the actual locker which was quite handy when my children were younger as being short they couldn't really reach the top ones.
Mine have always used theirs. They're particularly useful on PE days but even on other days their bags are very heavy and it is good to be able to offload the afternoon's books in the morning and vice versa. They have code locks, so no key to lose which is handy.

lanthanum · 22/11/2021 11:35

Yes, optional. I think it was £6 for the key for the five years, plus £6 for any lost key. (They do have spares in school, so no worries about lost keys, and if they've just left the key at home they can get stuff.)
Used mainly for PE kit - and so not at all when they were going to school in PE kit on PE days. I think she used to leave her lunchbox and coat in it, but then she abandoned coats (pacamac in bottom of bag) and kept the lunchbox in her bag. School doesn't use textbooks, so at most 5/6 books to carry around in a day.

InTheLabyrinth · 22/11/2021 11:37

Yes, but DS doesnt use it. Inconvenient to get to - especially with the 1 way system still operating round school, and insufficient time between classes.

NothingSafe · 22/11/2021 11:45

I had lockers at school 20 years ago - I think all year 7 and 8 had them, after that it was only if you had a physical disability that meant they were needed. They were free, with a £5 key deposit. People tended to keep gym kit, heavy textbooks, and their timetable in there.

They're still there, some of my friends now teach there. Small town in West Lancashire.

NothingSafe · 22/11/2021 11:47

@InTheLabyrinth

Yes, but DS doesnt use it. Inconvenient to get to - especially with the 1 way system still operating round school, and insufficient time between classes.

When I had a locker at school, we tended to go before form class to get the morning's books, then at break or lunch to swap for the afternoon ones, rather than going between each class. Our school wasn't huge though, so it was never more than a couple of minutes' walk from where we were.

dementedpixie · 22/11/2021 11:50

Ours have lockers but not enough for everyone to get one. My 2 dcs never had one as it was inconvenient to go to them between classes. They aren't being used just now because of covid and the school is still using a 1 way system in the building so you cant get to them easily. We're in Scotland so there are still mitigations in schools including mask wearing.

pastypirate · 22/11/2021 11:59

Dd1 is at a state grammar they have lockers but she doesn't want to use them as they are not in a central location. I wish she would though.

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