New research has revealed the unbelievable items found unclaimed in UK school lost property boxes.
A pet turtle that spent months living in a school pond. A toupee left for over a year. A prosthetic foot, with no owner ever found. These are just some of the bizarre items sitting unloved and unclaimed in school lost property boxes across the UK, according to a new study.
The research, conducted by the UK’s number one children’s name sticker and iron-on name label brand, My Nametags, surveyed 500 UK teachers from nurseries all the way through to universities, asking about their experiences dealing with lost property.
The most common item left in schools was a single shoe or boot, with more than half of teachers (55%) finding one in lost property. Second, was an item of designer clothing, including branded backpacks and expensive jackets (42%). And one in three (33%) have discovered wireless headphones or earbuds worth hundreds of pounds.
But it is the more peculiar items that paint the most vivid picture. More than a quarter of teachers have found parents’ house or car keys in lost property, leaving them to question how a parent can continue day-to-day life without them. One in six (17%) have discovered high-value jewellery, including wedding rings and expensive necklaces. And one in twelve (8%) have found medical or orthopaedic equipment, including crutches, walking frames, retainers, and even dentures. There were also three separate accounts of prosthetics being found, including an ear, a foot and a leg.
Remarkably, 2% of teachers have found a live pet or small animal, with accounts including a tortoise, a hamster, and a turtle that “made a break for it” during show and tell and was later discovered making its home in the school pond.
However, behind the unusual items left lies a serious and increasing problem – the growing tide of unclaimed school lost property. Nearly four in five teachers (79%) say the volume of lost property accumulated by the end of a single school term is staggering. Three-quarters are shocked by how long valuable or unusual items sit unclaimed. More than half of teachers (59%) say lost property is a bigger issue for their school than it used to be.
Teachers also warn that a throwaway culture is fuelling a mounting lost property crisis in UK schools, with 75% of teachers agreeing that lost items are treated as “disposable”, and parents would prefer to replace rather than retrieve them. And at the end of each term, nearly a third say they have no choice but to throw away large quantities of unclaimed property.
“The findings from this research confirm what teachers across the UK have known for years – lost property is a real concern and is placing a growing burden on schools, on teachers’ time, and on the families whose children’s belongings are ending up unclaimed,” says Lars B. Andersen, Managing Director at My Nametags.
“What concerns me most is the sense that lost items have become disposable. This is an alarming trend for household budgets, for the environment, and for the values we are passing on to our children. Our own previous research into the environmental cost of lost property found that school jumpers alone generate more than 7,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year in the UK, the equivalent of 455 million plastic bottles ending up in landfill.”
The survey also found that an overwhelming 89% of teachers say that the volume of lost property in their school would be halved if parents used nametags or labels on their children’s belongings. More than half (56%) say that nametags actively help lost property to be returned to its owner, however 37% reported that the majority of unusual or expensive items they find are completely unlabelled – making reuniting them with their owners near impossible.
Lars B. Andersen concludes: “Our message to parents is really simple – label everything. It gives your child’s belongings a real chance of finding their way home, whether that is a school jumper, a pair of expensive headphones, or maybe even a single shoe.”
Read more of the unusual accounts of lost property and full research here.
