Son's school has lost his coat

dizziblonde

I'd bet money another kid's picked it up by mistake and taken it home instead of their own coat and it'll drift back into school as soon as the washing goes in at the weekend. Otherwise - go into school at hometime and look in the cloakroom - generally it's easier to spot coats on the wrong peg when most of the stuff's gone home for the day. Ask the head if a note can go around classes or be read out in assembly asking if anyone's seen the coat, or in the school newsletter if there's a good one that goes out regularly (some schools do, some don't... my old one used to regularly have lost uniform appeals in them).

Or do what one delightful parent did to me once and present me with a written bill for all her son's lost belongings (her son would incidentally give a mouthful of abuse and wander off if you asked him if to make sure he picked up his bag to go home on a night) and blockade the teacher into a corner of the classroom and scream at them for 30 minutes.

Teachers do what they can to make sure everything goes home on the right child - but however much you remind children to put jumpers in trays or dress the back of their chairs with them if they take them off, with thirty children wearing the same clothes in one class, and 100 children wearing the same clothes in a school (and half of them not named!) things DO get muddled up (especially when you consider most schools have PE three times a week now) and when they're that little they'll either swear every time you're asking the class "whose jumper/painting/bookbag is this" is theirs (even when wearing or holding theirs already!) or they'll just helpfully tell you that their jumper has 5-6years in it (when the entire class is aged 5-6years!) bless them. I used to round up all the lost jumpers and put them out for reunions with parents on parents evenings/sports days etc.

He's probably taken it off in the good weather to use it as a goalpost for football if he's a typical little boy! If things are named they DO make their way back into school - but a newsletter note would remind parents to check the name tags on their kids' school stuff and speed its arrival up coming back in. Other places to check if it was PE day would be the PE bags of the kids on his table - when the kids bundle all their PE kit up to shove it in the bag they pick up all sorts that way... but then PE kits will probably be going home at the end of this week for a wash and it'll turn up if that's happened.

And yes by the way - we DO look around school for them. I've arrived at school at 8am somedays to find the head going through every locker in the school to look for a lost PE shoe before (although I remain convinced that Lord Lucan and Shergar will turn up one day in one of the lockers with the mess that they get in). The stuff kids manage to lose in school is amazing - I can't figure out quite HOW one kid I taught managed to lose his underpants in a school swimming trip... to this day I've still never figured that one out.

jem16

bestpud wrote: »

We are obviously on different sides of the fence here and as much as you believe the parent should shrug it off, I believe they should only do so after exhausting all possibilities.

I am on both sides of the fence. I have been a teacher for 32 years and a parent for almost 25 years ( my two sons are 22 and 24) so I can see it from both sides. I have had items of clothing lost and also torn beyond repair. However that's life.

I am pretty sure that the school has looked thoroughly as dizziblonde has pointed out

The OP is after opinions and it is good they get both sides imo.

I agree.

However what I see more and more now are a lot of children and their parents who see everything as someone else's fault and responsibility.

Curious_George_2

dizziblonde wrote: »

I can't figure out quite HOW one kid I taught managed to lose his underpants in a school swimming trip... to this day I've still never figured that one out.

no different to them losing anything else...
you take something off and when you come back it isnt there...

if he lost his underpants on a day where there was NO swimming... that would be a mind boggler!:rotfl:

shop-to-drop

I have three boys who are always losing stuff and rarely find especially the one a high school. Fingers crossed it turns up soon.

bestpud

jem16 wrote: »

I am on both sides of the fence. I have been a teacher for 32 years and a parent for almost 25 years ( my two sons are 22 and 24) so I can see it from both sides. I have had items of clothing lost and also torn beyond repair. However that's life.

I am pretty sure that the school has looked thoroughly as dizziblonde has pointed out


I agree.

However what I see more and more now are a lot of children and their parents who see everything as someone else's fault and responsibility.

Now that I do agree with and I can assure you I do not fall into that camp!

I too have had various items of clothing lost or ruined over the years I have had children at school. Not once have I ever blamed the school.

DD lost a brand new cardigan last year and I could have cried, but I did no more than ask the school if they would look out for it, and they also asked the children and one admitted taking it home. However, she then saud she'd brought it back and put it on dd's peg but it wasn't there when dd went to get it.

I still do not know if she ever brought it back, or if she did and it just went missing again.

I checked lost property for several weeks and then gave it up as lost.

BUT I would not have done that before ensuring I, and the school, had done all they could to find it. I would not have been happy at it being dismissed offhand and that is what I feel is happening to the OP (based on what she has written here).

So lets not jump to conclusions about the 'type of parent' I am please.

jem16

bestpud wrote: »

Now that I do agree with and I can assure you I do not fall into that camp!

So lets not jump to conclusions about the 'type of parent' I am please.

I don't remember jumping to any conclusions about the type of parent you are.

I would not have been happy at it being dismissed offhand and that is what I feel is happening to the OP (based on what she has written here).

No-one dismissed the OP offhand - suggestions have been made about how to go about finding the jacket.

However what I took exception to was that somehow the lost jacket was the school's fault.

This statement by the OP;

I just feel that once my child leaves my care and goes to school then him and his school belongings are their responsibility

and the thread's title;

"Son's school has lost his coat"

suggests that the OP feels that the school is to blame.

bestpud

Curious_George wrote: »

no different to them losing anything else...
you take something off and when you come back it isnt there...

if he lost his underpants on a day where there was NO swimming... that would be a mind boggler!:rotfl:

Going OT a bit now but dd (then 5) was once found to be without knickers at school; she apparently told her friend she had none on and her friend told the teacher.

Anyway, as they'd not long started school, her teacher thought she may have wet herself and discarded them somewhere, so went on a hunt to find a wet pair of knickers but to no avail.

It turned out dd had simply decided she didn't want to wear any, so she hadn't, and of course, I didn't think to check as we left home (I mean, you just don't, do you?) :rolleyes:

The funniest part though, was the teacher got her a spare pair of pants to put on and dd asked her why she needed to wear pants!

The teacher said 'well, you don't want to go around showing your bottom do you?', and dd replied 'well, I don't mind!' :rotfl:

skylight

We have sewn labels in my kids stuff and still it gets lost. It just gets thrown into the lost property box and despite school letters telling us that teachers go through this on a weekly basis it obviously isn't so, as I find it when I search through!

Look yourself when the school is empty - its far easier, jumpers under chairs in the cloakrooms, on wrong pegs etc. And the lost property box too.

For senior school, the best way to get them to keep stuff is also to sewn in labels. They are so embarrassed at having their name in their clothes at 14/15yo, they will not let the things out of their sight! The eldest - for the first time in her educational career - has not lost a single item of clothing this school year!

inkie

Well, as a parent and a Governor, I would say that it is not the responsibility of the school. How can it be? It's part of parenting. Having lost item(s) can be incovenient, annoying, expensive, but part and parcel of a child being at school.
Wonder if school should start and display disclaimer notices stating that 'they cannot be reponsible for any loss of belongings however caused'......???

skylight

inkie wrote: »

Wonder if school should start and display disclaimer notices stating that 'they cannot be reponsible for any loss of belongings however caused'......???

Well, why not?

My kids Primary school has No Smoking signs inside all the classrooms, kids cloakrooms and kids toilets.



:rotfl::rotfl: