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

[DownToTheSeaAgain]

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

My kids schools (comp, London) have lockers, which are allocated, but we are responsible for providing the padlock. Requirement in Year 7 that the padlock come with a minimum of two keys and one of them be handed to the head of form (don't know how he kept them separate), as Year 7s tended to lose them too often. After Year 7, expected to be responsible enough to not lose keys (we bought one that came with about six keys!). At one point we provided combination locks to avoid key forgetting issues, but now back to padlocks with keys (and key hung on lanyard).
DS had a year when he didn't have a locker in about Year 10 , because the allocated locker was broken (I think he may have used it anyway for PE kit, or maybe he shared, I am not sure), so he carried all of this books around with him. DD needed to do that last year because of covid, when they wouldn't allow them access to the lockers, but generally lockers are used, not just for coats and PE kit but for heavy books and multiple exercise books and sheets (especially in the days when they gave out science and maths text books - now that all textbooks are online the bags aren't quite as heavy). I think they are generally accessed before school and during breaks. Generally the ones for Year 7 were more accessible and convenient (and less likely to be broken, i gather), ie there was a sense that the Year 7s were more vulnerable and needed them more and they were more clustered. The further up the school, the less accessible and more scattered they seem to be, and there is less of a sense of them being used. I did tell my DS to complain when he was given a broken one, and he said that there weren't enough, and he was strong enough to manage, and better him than somebody younger..

Yes all year 7s got them which was brilliant for coats that they are not allowed to wear inside plus the PE kit could live in there until it needed washing.

Year 8 onward no lockers. Very frustrating as there does appear to be some for older children inside some of the common rooms but no one seems to know who they are for.

I wish they would have lockers all the way through and allow time to get to the lockers after break, ie let them inside the building a few minutes earlier than they currently do. There is a one way system in place though which I think did scupper collecting a coat for break.

Yes all year 7s got them which was brilliant for coats that they are not allowed to wear inside plus the PE kit could live in there until it needed washing.

Year 8 onward no lockers. Very frustrating as there does appear to be some for older children inside some of the common rooms but no one seems to know who they are for.

I wish they would have lockers all the way through and allow time to get to the lockers after break, ie let them inside the building a few minutes earlier than they currently do. There is a one way system in place though which I think did scupper collecting a coat for break.

We are in West Yorkshire.

Y7 DS is coping with books a plenty plus games / PE kits (sometimes multiple kits and boots on the same day) without a locker plus he walks to school. His is like so many schools that have grow across multiple buildings in a relatively confined urban area so apart from the impractical movement to any potential lockers between lessons, doubt the school has space for them and they have better things to spend money and admin time on. S London state grammar.

My DD's school does. Though we have to pay £25 a year to an external management company. Handy for dumping pe kit etc

All girls grammar on the Wirral.

No. Midlands. The school say there is no room. We haven't had much problem with losing things (yet) but Y11 DD's bag is about 20kg as she carries all her books around. Her shoulders are getting damaged especially when she walks to school. (It is likely that even if she had one, she wouldn't use it though as she'd be worried about leaving something there she needed.)

Ours doesn’t. They wear PE kit to school.

At my school they were basically holders for smelly PE kits we kept forgetting to take home to wash, so I can see why they don’t bother.

Yes. Ds1 says that after Yr 7, most don't use them.

My previous school (all boys state grammar) had lockers for every child located either in or near the form room with padlocks provided by the parent. In year 7 boys had to provide a spare key, and those in year 8 were given the choice to (most did). They were used by pretty much everyone, as the school had a "no bags in corridors" policy because the corridors were too narrow.

Yes
We pay £9/year for them
DS uses his everyday
They were closed off last year because of Covid, as they are all clustered into small spaces.
Very handy on days when DD has a music lesson and PE.
School is in rural outskirts of Huddersfield

@DownToTheSeaAgain does your school have space for lockers? I've recently been involved in designing a new school building, using the DfE's criteria, and there is no space for lockers - or rather, we'd have to lose a classroom or another key space to accommodate them..And even if the DfE increased the amount of square footage available, there is no optimum place to put lockers, because students move around the school so much.

Is your dc in year 7/8? They have a lot of lost property in our school too, but they soon learn..It doesn't help that Covid meant they didn't learn the lessons sooner, because there was no changing for pe last year.

My DD uses locker everyday but has still lost a frightening amount of stuff despite it all being named. I think high schools need proper procedures for where if goes & how claimed.

We have them, paid a £20 deposit when he started, then £5 hire fee for the duration of his schooling.

As they have the same locker for 5 years and the school is quite large, it turns out his locker is nowhere near his tutor room (and hasn't been the last 2 years either). DS doesn't keep anything in it as apparently it takes too long to get there and back between lessons.

School has a general policy of no PE kit kept in lockers (presumably so it gets washed instead of festering all term), so even if he had a convenient locker he wouldn't keep anything in it.

Should have kept wearing PE kit in on PE days IMO, we've lost quite a few bits of uniform.

Our kids school have some and you can rent them for about £5/term. Neither of mine want one because it's a big school and they dont want to have to keep going to and fro bw class/locker/exit. They also feel theyd be more likely to forget books etc they need at school. Seems a bit daft to me and means they have to haul heavy bags around everywhere but it's their choice.

@DownToTheSeaAgain, following on from my previous post, it is possible to get outdoor lockers, so that might be an option in schools with limited indoor space but surplus outdoor space.

Speaking as a school governor, alarm bells ring when you use the word 'campaigning'. In my experience, headteachers don't like being bounced into things by bolshy parents who use social media etc to gang up on them. And other senior staff and the governing body will rally round the head to support them (even if they privately agree with you). Instead, I'd recommend you be professional, do lots of research, work out some realistic options for where the lockers could be sited, how much they will cost to buy (hopefully the pta has funds to cover this), and how they will be managed (key deposits, cleaning etc), then write a very polite persuasive letter outlining a proposal. If you can make a strong case that has no/low cost, and no/low burden on staff, then you may have a chance. If the proposal is bounced, please don't at any point try to make your headteacher look mean or stupid (it will backfire on you) - just try to understand the reasons and see how you might mitigate them.

Yes and yes. Not stating location other than England.

They are very useful for things like food tech when you have it late and can leave ingredients on the locker, or early you can leave the cooked item in the locker.

Mine have always used them.

Yes outdoor lockers are good too.

We pay £25 a year and the lockers are provided by an external company.

DD mainly uses hers for her PE kit but it's handy to have.

London/Surrey borders.

£25 is a lot. We pay £2.

We used to allocate every pupil a locker, (£5 key deposit)
Many didn't get used and the smell from some of them was horrendous.

We have reduced the number of lockers due to crowding in corridors.

Pupils can ask for a locker if they want one.

but we also have many lockers that are broken into or just vandalised.

I had one up to the end of year 9 at school (south east england) and then they decided to replace them with coat hooks as they didn't want to spend money replacing the really old ones. It was awful. Bag was so heavy all of the time with all of the days books and lunch (which would get squished once you were too cool for a lunchbox), you would spend ages looking for your pe kit because it would be knocked off the hooks and kicked along the corridor and so you'd end up lugging your pe kit around too. Couldn't bring different shoes for the walk to and from school as you'd have to carry them about too. Your coat would be identical to half the year group and you wouldn't want to lose that either and so that would be carried around all day (but not worn - you'd get told off if you wore it in the corridor).

I was constantly leaving books at home because that was where they lived, only being brought in for lessons, as opposed to them living at school and only being taken home for homework (where they were used and put straight back in the bag - or not used and just left in the back to take back in if I didn't do my homework).

Encourage your school to invest in lockers. They really make life easier. As well as being a nice base to put posters up in, post notes through the vent to each other etc. Actually thinking about it - do kids still do that in a world of smartphones?