School Lost Property

Poppie68

razam wrote: »

Many of the posts are focussing on the fact that childred will, and do, lose things. I accept that. But I am concerned here about the school not accepting responsibility.

Since the parent cant be in the class/school & 3/4 year old can not be held responsible, surely the responsibility is with the school/teahcers?

The schools will not accept responsiblity as it is not their policy to do so, so there is no need to be concerned.
It's always been like this as has been mentioned things go missing all the time in schools.
You say you did'nt know about the lost property box...did you not have them at your schools? Missing items and lost property boxes have been features of all schools for ever, it's part of the school experience.
As for the snow boots, why did'nt you take responsibility for them and take them home at the end of term? Would they still fit your child now anyway?

Poppie68

Person_one wrote: »

Slight tangent, but surely the same snow boots from last winter wouldn't actually fit anymore even if you did still have them?

Beat me too it..:mad::)

gunsandbanjos

Person_one wrote: »

Slight tangent, but surely the same snow boots from last winter wouldn't actually fit anymore even if you did still have them?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the child. My daughter easily gets 2 winters out her boots as she grows very slowly.

bylromarha

Maysie wrote: »

A parent started a facebook group for my sons class to remind of upcoming things and ask questions about homework as we felt info from school was a bit lacking in places. Anyway we quite often ask each other to check for x y z as ours has gone missing. Things have turned up this way. Its all very friendly could you start up something similar at your school OP. At least you won't feel so bad if you know if its happening to others.

Love this idea - its proactive and a good solution to the problem.

As a teacher, you just cannot keep on top of all the missing items. Winter = 30 hats, 60 gloves, 30 scarfs, around 40 boots...
And as a parent, I would NEVER send a £30 pair of boots into school with a 4 year old.

maman

Counting_Pennies wrote: »

I guess schools do what they can with the resources they have available.

It is terribly frustrating when things go missing.

I find the key thing to do is ask to go into school on the day the item goes missing and search around the coat pegs and class room as that is when you have greatest chance of getting the item back. Also ensure gloves are attached to the coat through elastic, and just ensure they are cheap things going in.

The school are welcoming of a parent going to the office and asking permission to sign in and wear a tag to say you are a visitor when all the kids have gone home. Often the teacher is still in the classroom.

Another thing is the school have invested in a water tight lost property box. The type you have in the garden, so all parents are to look in there first. Often an item found in the playground goes in there. Teachers will do their best to reunite items, but they are so busy it does not happen regularly.

Some parents in our school have offered to sort the lost property box once a fortnight and those items named are then given in to the office and they send them into the classrooms and those not named are displayed once a month for parents to see (most are too lazy to lift the lid of the box) this gets a good surge of parents rehoming the items. If the item has remained in the box for a couple of months they are donated to the rag collection we have at school which provides money for rags.

Perhaps some parents should get together and be proactive offering to help the office staff. After all there is a limit to what can be achieved running a huge organisation on a shoe string budget.

I used to sort out all unclaimed lost property at the end of each term and wash it all. Any plain stuff would go to charity shops. School jumpers would go back to school and be given to children who needed one.

FBaby

There are two issues here. What your child has lost, and what the school has lost. If it is indeed the case that the school take the responsibility of transferring all snow boots on behalf of the parents, an indeed very unusual
policy, then they are responsible for the loss and at a minimum, should give assurance that they have looked everywhere AND asked other parents if they were taken by error.

In regard to the items of clothing that your child lost, then I strongly disagree that the school should be responsible. Part of starting school is learning about looking after your items. Unfortunately, it take kids quite some time to assimilate this responsibility to the frustration of most parents, but that's part of the learning. Much less frustrating when the lost items don't cost much (thick socks are cheaper than good quality boots).