Today I am reflecting on what seems to be a significant number of the Year 5 and 6 children in our shared space who are lacking in personal responsibility for their belongings.
It has been surprising to me how many things are getting lost in our space! On day one a child lost a brand new well named school jersey which has never turned up...however, an unnamed one was left in our space for a week and the mother of the child who lost his jersey thought this could be her sons and that she may have not labelled what she first thought she had.
The most frequent lost item is the school sunhat and sports gear also seems to be high on the list...and with these loses children struggle to remember previous actions and are quick to point blame on another classmate. It is also apparent and concerning that so many children need frequent reminders to wear their sun hats!
In our space we have had to established a lost box, which is full of pencils, books, labels, workbooks, worksheets, tote trays and many other items. When children are directed to look for items in this box they are still capable of not seeing what is directly in front of them.
Today, after a reminder to check that children had collected all their personal items form the bus....a child managed to leave his entire bag on the bus.
There are a number of children who wait to be rescued by a friend, teacher or parent when they have lost something...as though they aren't equipped with the skills to locate something once it is gone form their hands or immediate space. And we have the parents who blame others including themselves for their child's lost items ....this blaming isn't helping us to move forward with independence and responsibility!
Hmmm - not sure what the answer is for this - it is always an issue at a school but you would think in that space that it would be hard to lose things? For this I have no answer but I will keep pondering...
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