School has binned my daughters belongings

barnaby-bear

BeenieCat wrote: »

Lol! Why does it always come down to what the taxpayer is paying for?

Because I have the best interests of all our children at heart and think schools should be accountable for spending their limited budget in the best possible way - assistance for special needs kids, textbooks etc... not for someone to waste their time inspecting 100's of pairs of smelly pants without names that no-one cared about enough to take home that will sit around all summer, that some poor sod will have to store taking up cupboard space - cated between classrooms, only for no-one to collect.... all smelling of a term/years work of muck, wee and wear.. urgh

NAR

shellsuit wrote: »

Oh sorry, I just assumed you knew what school the OP's daughter went to as you knew that they would be open through the summer holidays. :cool:

I accept what you say :rolleyes: , buy my point is OP didn't even try to find out if school was open.
See post #6

dieselhead

bestpud wrote: »

DD's school does the same, and I think it's a reasonable policy tbh.

They have to go in at some point, I presume, and give it a good clean, and they don't want bits and pieces hanging around when they are renaming pegs etc. I know it doesn't seem a lot, but if everyone left just the one item, can you imagine the extra time involved?

DD went up a shoe size over summer anyway, so they'd be no good if she'd left hers there.

How did you manage to forget a £35 pair of trainers? :eek: I'd have made darn sure they came home!

Personally, I check every day that dd has everything she should because I've found cardis etc can go walkabout overnight, let alone over the entire summer period.

Oh btw, I think most schools send them to a charity shop rathr than actually binning them!

Bestpud I agree with you, the whole time I have been reading this I have been thinking, what about cleaning, painting decorating etc. Someone would have had to have gathered up all the left behind belongings and store them somewhere. Then how long should items be kept for, a week after they return to school, a month, longer? To the person who suggested the teachers should return them, are you proposing that teacher should ring every parent of a child with stuff left behind!?

I appreciate the unexpected cost is not great, but I just feel that a school can't be (and really in my opinion shouldn't be) responsible for every pupils personal belongings.

bylromarha

I'm with Surfbabe.

We used to dispose of it if it was still at school on the last day.

This was after a week of holding items at the front of the class asking for owners, all PE bags being sent home the penultimate week of term so you could find owners for the final things left over. Despite all this, things are left in school, and go to the charity shop, despite names.

Our school was also open at least 3 days every week during the holidays. If a parent left a message on the answerphone, it would have been picked up.

Schools do their best, but they can't be the parent to every child, taking responsibility for all their items. That's the parents job...

System

this is standard practice , at my dd primary school a letter was sent out prior to the end of term requesting parents come and take what had been left anything after that was sold to parents and anything left was disposed of .if it wasnt done on a regular basis the school would be over run with smelly pe kits ! when my dd 1st started nursery i had 100 name tags printed and although it was boring i took the time to sew them onto all her clothing , she is at comp now and ive still got loads left !

SugarSpun

The way I see it, responsibility is as follows:

The school is responsible for letting parents/children know the consequences of leaving things behind.
The child is responsible for bringing everything out of school on the last day.
The parents are responsible for checking to make sure the kid did that.

Only the school did what they were supposed to do. You could treat it as a lesson for the kid - see, when you forget stuff it gets thrown away - and then she learns something. Or you could whinge about the school not making an exception for your child. Only one of those options is productive.

sidefx

Rikki wrote: »

Would the trainers still fit her now? I just wondered if they were in the lost property box would they be any use to you now?

That was my first thought, along with spending £35 on trainers for a small child:eek: What ever happened to cheap plimsoles for school P.E. lessons!?

bestpud

KatP wrote: »

What if this had been a purse with money in and a card with the name of the owner inside, would we think the school would be justified in keeping it just because it was forgotten on the last day of term???

That is entirely different, as that is a lost item, and not something that can be avoided as a rule.

Unless you think schools should warn parents not to leave their purse in school on the last day of term?

Also, I imagine more effort would have been put into contacting the school and seeing what days teachers were in over summer...

KatP wrote: »

But if they are collecting them up to charity shop them, why not collect them up and wait until after the first week of term to see if they are collected?

Or charity shop the unlabelled items and save the labelled ones for a week or two into the new term.

These items don't belong to the school to dispose of and many families will hand school clothes and pe kit down to a younger brother or sister.

Or, why not write to parents before the end of term and avoid it in the first place. Quite simply, they have better things to be doing - like educating our children!

If I were handing down PE kit between my children, I'd be all the more careful to ensure it came home!

danielanthony

If you left your wallet or bag on a train, is it reasonable to the train company to then throw your belongings in the bin?

barnaby-bear

danielanthony wrote: »

If you left your wallet or bag on a train, is it reasonable to the train company to then throw your belongings in the bin?

Probably not - but if I left my jumper on a train and then went back 6 weeks later and demanded it back after the train had been cleaned and refurbed.... I wouldn't be very surprised if they hadn't kept it.... if I lost my wallet on a train I'd be contacting them as soon as I realised too not 6 weeks later. Small extremely valuable items like wallets aren't the same as smelly second hand clothes. Smelly second hand clothes left amongst piles of genuinely discarded smelly second hand clothes..... would you expect a tain company to keep your lunch box+contents for 6 weeks? Really???