We’ve been working with name labels for the past 20 years, and, in our experience, one issue remains contentious for both parents and teachers – lost property.
We wanted to learn more about some of the more unusual items that end up in school lost property boxes, and just how much of a problem lost property is in the UK.
So, we conducted some research to find out more. We surveyed 500 UK teachers from a wide range of educational backgrounds from nurseries all the way through to universities to ask about their experiences dealing with lost property.
And the results were interesting to say the least…
Unusual lost property
The survey revealed some intriguing stories and anecdotes from UK teachers about some of the odder items that found their way in the school lost property boxes.
Of the teachers surveyed:
- 55% found a single boot or shoe
- 42% found designer clothing or accessories
- 33% found wireless headphones or earbuds
- 28% found parents’ house or car keys
- 25% found phones, tablets or laptops
- 25% found smartwatches or fitness trackers
- 17% found high value jewellery
- 8% found medical/orthopaedic equipment such as crutches, dentures or retainers
- 2% found a live pet or a small animal
But it was the teachers’ anecdotal answers that were most revealing. Some of the bizarre items found were:
- “A live turtle – a kid brought it in for show and tell, it made a break for it and was found months later living in the school pond”
- “A toupee, unclaimed for over a year – I was sure somebody must be missing it”
- “A prosthetic foot, never claimed or reported as missing”
- “An artificial limb – owner never found”
- “A purse that turned out to belong to an undiscovered mistress – the item eventually made its way back to Texas [from the UK] via the Texas Marshalls”
- “A frying pan – no idea where it came from, it stayed for a long time”
- “An ancient 5-inch floppy disc – not claimed”
- “A Pogo stick”
- “Dentures”
- “False teeth left in the toilet”
- “A pouch of cat food”
- “A stuffed squirrel”
The scale of the problem
The results, while interesting, also highlighted a much larger issue – a worrying attitude towards lost property. 75% of teachers feel that lost items are viewed as ‘disposable’, with families choosing to replace rather than retrieve.
79% of teachers agree that the volume of lost property accumulated by the end of term is staggering, while three quarters are shocked at how long valuable or unusual items sit unclaimed. 59% also say that lost property is a bigger problem than it used to be.
29% say they have to throw away large amounts of lost property at the end of each term, and 39% say that that their school’s lost property box is routinely overflowing. 36% said they deal with a pupil losing an item most days and 33% say that searching for lost property is a daily disruption to their routine.
The My Nametags solution
46% of teachers say they regularly hear parents complain about lost property and 36% say their school has never had a week without a parent contacting them about a lost item.
Here at My Nametags, we are on a mission to reduce the amount of lost property ending up in landfill as well as making parents’ lives easier.
89% of teachers agree that lost property would be halved or much less if parents used nametags or labels and 56% agree nametags help return lost property to their owner.
By labelling all belongings, from clothing to phones, medical equipment to earbuds, lost property will have a much better chance of being reunited with their owner.
Want to keep your child’s property from becoming lost? Discover personalised name labels.
