Stolen jacket at school

rachy182

From what i can remember from my exams at school bags and coats were left in the changing rooms next to the gym. These rooms were then locked until the exam was finished. However you then have nearly 100 people wanting to collect their bags from one room and cant be let in all at once. I imagine that your sons stuff was grabbed at this point. All you can hope for is for someone to realize they've picked up the wrong stuff and returns it or for the thief to be found.

geerex

In all honesty, the concept of having your belongings being removed from you against your will doesn't sit well with me. I can see the reasons for it, but if that's going to be the case, personal secure facilities should be provided.
Tossing all the jackets in a locked room doesn't mitigate this, as invariably some child with a lack of morals will half inch what it fancies with no comeback.
I'll say it again, the school are liable. They can't deprive a child of their jacket without having a proper and accountable way of keeping it secure.
Take this all the way.

pollypenny

Did your son have his name in his jacket, geerex?

Or was it something terribly expensive and likely to be pinched?

My school had lockers, but they weren't popular, as kids would have to trek back to them at various times of day from the other end of a big school.

Jagraf

geerex wrote: »

In all honesty, the concept of having your belongings being removed from you against your will doesn't sit well with me. I can see the reasons for it, but if that's going to be the case, personal secure facilities should be provided.
Tossing all the jackets in a locked room doesn't mitigate this, as invariably some child with a lack of morals will half inch what it fancies with no comeback.
I'll say it again, the school are liable. They can't deprive a child of their jacket without having a proper and accountable way of keeping it secure.
Take this all the way.

What type of security and would you ask parents to pay for it? There is no way round going to an examination with your coat on, so what measures would you bring in and would it be manned? Ticketed? A bit like a night club? Would children who are sitting exams (maybe 100 in a room) need to queue and be given a receipt? It would need to be done properly to fall in with insurance so maybe kids would need to start queuing an hour before an exam. Who would monitor this process? A paid for member of staff? Parents perhaps on a voluntary basis (who would need to have enhanced DBS checks)? Would you make the school day longer to account for this process, or the teaching day shorter?

If the current system isn't working and parents start suing, it needs to be stricter to comply with parents wishes. This will be expensive. Especially as you don't want their coats taken off them against there will, and also not thrown into an 'empty' store cupboard which just happens to be next to the examination room.

Schools are not 5* hotels.

Torry_Quine

Not having been to school for many years I didn't know that it is now the norm to have a locker. In my day coats were hung on coat pegs and bags with books carried from one class to the next!

Spendless

I've just asked my son about what happens with his belongings during a GCSE exam. He's yr10 so though he's sat some exams he still needs his school bag as for the rest of the day his normal lessons apply. He told me that he takes the exam in a sports hall and their bags and coats are in a small locked corridor at the side. He said due to not much space it would be very easy to pick someone else's belongings up by mistake if they looked the same/similar.

I think the chances of you getting it back are small as the year group has already split up from daily attendance so it's probably not possible to get the same group together to ask.

Jagraf

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Not having been to school for many years I didn't know that it is now the norm to have a locker. In my day coats were hung on coat pegs and bags with books carried from one class to the next!

Same here. You had a peg with benches underneath, rarely things went missing as most kids are trustworthy, and it was your own fault if stuff went missing. Not the case like nowadays where its always someone else's fault.

missbiggles1

Jagraf wrote: »

Same here. You had a peg with benches underneath, rarely things went missing as most kids are trustworthy, and it was your own fault if stuff went missing. Not the case like nowadays where its always someone else's fault.

If you had a strict uniform policy as we did, nobody pinched stuff as everybody's clothes were as ghastly as your own!

pendragon_arther

There's nothing you can do. The school can't account for little vermin thieves. My son has has his jacket nicked a couple of times but they have a second-hand uniform shop where you can buy one for a fiver. He's had a couple of hats stolen too. In a school of about 600 pupils teachers hands are pretty well full without having to cope with kids whose parents are low-lifes too.

Jagraf

missbiggles1 wrote: »

If you had a strict uniform policy as we did, nobody pinched stuff as everybody's clothes were as ghastly as your own!

That's a really good point. No one would want to nick a bright green jumper and purple kilt!