How primary schools manage lost property

[The Nappy Lady]

Hi all

I'm interested to know how other schools manage lost property.

At my daughters school it all gets bundled into a cupboard, whether it's labelled or not.

When the cupboard is full it gets bagged up & put in the basement & then eventually put out

On tables in the playground a couple of times. If it has a name in it you do stand a chance

Of getting it back but often only after a few months. I got a mouldy pack lunch returned the

Other day & had to bin it - I kid you not!!

It really, really winds me up that even though I take time to put names in stuff it still gets

Put in the cupboard. I work & only manage the school run once or twice a week by which time things

Have often gone to the basement black hole. If it's a rain coat it's a disaster.

I know schools must have a lot of lost clothes but there must be a better way surely? Weekly

Lost property monitors or something??? I would happily go through it all once a month to find items

That belong to children in my girls classes & I'm sure others would to.

Please share any useful experiences before I totally loose the plot!!

[HannahSE23]

In our school they put out lost property on rails and in a big plastic bucket in the playground at the end of every day. It takes a bit of organising but it means items get returned more quickly!

[hazelnunhead]

Molly I hear you! I managed to go to the cupboard of lost property doom today. Nothing there! No idea where to look for item, will take many moons to finally get it back! This year I got labels with my daughters name and class name, hasn't made any difference!

I wondered if we got the PTA or something like that to raise money for a proper storage system, where like clothes could be put (e.g. T shirts of each colour separately, rain coats in another box, so that when you are looking for something you could at least know where to start) I would also be happy to volunteer to do the odd shift and return marked items to owners. A creative solution is really needed for this. Would be ntereting to know other school's systems.

[lillyanginger]

The childrens primary school had two large bins (with lids) - one for named lost property and one for unnamed stuff. Parents could go and 'dig' through mornings or after school.

[lillyanginger]

And towards the end of each term (or maybe half term) everything left was put out on tables in the reception area.

[intexasatthe moment]

Seems no change in the last twenty years Molly .

And the accusing response of " was it labelled ? " that was delivered to any enquiry used to drive me mad . It never seemed to occur to the powers that be that labelling wouldn't magically prevent a child from forgetting to collect a jumper taken off in the playground .

Me ?Bitter ?

[EDmummy]

Depending on the age of your child, I tell my son to look through lost property himself. He's been managing to find his labelled lost property on his own since the age of 6-7.

[Saffron]

Lost property at Little Saff's school is set out in large plastic tubs every morning in the playground. Items are roughly sorted by type, eg coats,jumpers, or misc. There's a big clear out at the end of term for unclaimed items. xx

[The Nappy Lady]

Our school keeps the cupboard locked so whilst my ten year old can manage to look for her own stuff my six year old can't.

This was today's experience

Get key from reception, go to cupboard (which was full last Friday when I searched it). It's now empty save two school jumpers. See school caretaker & ask when it was emptied "yesterday" is the response. OK so my daughter last her coat on Wednesday & as I work 4.5 days Friday afternoon is the first chance I get to look for it.

So I ask "is it all now bagged in the basement?" and am told yes. "Can I look in the bag"..... No once it's in the basement that's it, but if you describe it I will TRY to look for it".

At this point (after years of frustration about this) I explode...."what if it's raining? My daughter needs her rain coat. I'm a working mum, it was lost two days ago & now it's in the basement.... It has her name in it.....this is not OK. Is it not possible for someone to reunite children with clothes that are named?".

End of a long week, tired, second coat lost in a month. Yes I'm upset.

I did take a few moments and return to apologise to the caretaker, but honestly it isn't right is it. We can't all be there every day to look for lost property.

Best of all I then found the darn thing, hung on a peg in the wrong cloakroom, but what if it had been in the cupboard on Wednesday and bagged up the next day? They need a better system.

It's flipping insane & I am now on a mission!

[Monkey]

Blimey, that's pretty poor. My daughter's never lost anything apart from some gloves that were not labelled. She's not great at looking after her things so I can only imagine that it's because labelled clothes are returned directly to her classroom. I'd be furious if she lost one coat, never mind two!

[EDmummy]

Wow- that's really unfair. I agree with you that they must have these clothes more accessible.

[etta166]

It sounds like your school doesn't have the best set up, to say the least. But, from their perspective, they are trying to get hundreds of children to look after a host of almost identical items. There isn't a lost of spare time in the day for anything, let alone sorting out lost property.

Even if it is labelled, it may well be labelled with the name of a sibling, or have last year's class on it. It isn't easy to reunite lost clothes with their owners.

Our school puts eveything into two huge boxes near the office, and each class room also has a lost property box. You can look thought it at the start/end of any day. As far as I know, it is only removed at the end of terms. Most parents I know tend to collect anything labelled with the name of children they know and bring them back to the classroom. It is a huge job, though.

I mostly direct my efforst to reminding my children to keep track of their stuff, on the grounds that prevention is better than a cure. Having said that, I have collected a boy with no shoes or trousers before now :)

[nunheadmum]

Molly, I think a lot of the problem is often that things seem to go on a journey around the school before they get to the cupboard. Probably by well meaning staff trying to be helpful. It might help if anything separated from its owner was put in one place at the end of the day.

[Mellors]

Outs goes out in the playground every morning so all the mums have a rummage before school. The rest of the time its all together near the cloakrooms so you can go and have a rifle through any old time. Sometimes they get it all out in assembly as well and make the kids look through themselves. Finally at the end of every term there's plenty of warning before it goes off to the charity shop. My son is hopeless, but with regular rifling through I've managed to keep hold of all the important stuff so far (who knows where the PE kits end up though?).

[James Barber]

This sounds awful.

Can you PM me which school and I'd be happy to raise with the head. It's bad enough policy/process but some families just could'nt afford to replace any items lost in this system.

[The Nappy Lady]

James - thank you for the offer of support, but I would like to try to resolve this myself with the school initially. The Head is pretty receptive, I think just not really aware of the issue and frustrations. If no success I will revert to you.

[James Barber]

The offer is their if you get stuck.