The 'quiet' side of St.Olave's

[fjhjdjdn]

Today, Wallington County Grammar School played St Olave's at rugby. The U15, U16, 2ndXV and 1stXV games were held at St.Olave's. WCGS changed in the changing room facilities provided and after the game returned to find that around 35 1stXV, 2ndXV and U16 players had had their phones, wallets, iPods etc stolen whilst they were playing. Not a single person from St.Olave's had a single thing taken.

[pheasantchick]

I have nothing to do with either school (and don't actually know where they are).

However, innocent until proven guilty, so please do not blame the school, when you don't know who the culprit is - it could easily be an outside person.

[fjhjdjdn]

It could possibly be an outside person, though the building is on the other side of the field, and you question why an outside person would have access to a facility which not only is that far away, but is surrounded by St.Olave's parents and staff, and how they would even know that the changing rooms were in that building, and even if they had managed all of that, would then only enter WCGS changing rooms.

[Etienne]

What a shame.

Most schools probably have an arrangement whereby valuables can be left with a teacher on duty. Sadly, just 1 rogue + an opportunity = theft.

[dani*]

I am involved with a local competitive sport club. We are telling our kids not to keep valuables in their bags but to hand them to one of their parents or an adult member of the club for safe keeping. Sadly we keep telling kids this until we go green and when we do, some of them often roll their eyes. Unfortunately when it all goes wrong they are the first ones to blame others. I do not condone theft, by no means but I equally believe it isn't clever to create opportunities for thieves by leaving valuables in a changing room either.

Anyway hopefully the culpit gets caught and the missing items returned.

[Jiff]

As a St Olave's parent (albeit that my boys aren't involved in rugby) I was shocked and saddened to read this. What was the school's response?

[fjhjdjdn]

Unfortunately, no Olave's staff ever made it clear to any of us that there was anywhere else to store our valuables. The changing room wasn't an open space, they were individual rooms off the corridor, one for each team, with a lock on the each door. Had we all been in one communal space, then I'd agree that we should take a fair share of the blame but we weren't, and the space directly infront of the building was the base for Olave's staff so you'd assume it'd be safe one way or the other.

In terms of the response, I'd rather not talk about the response of some of the parents or the 1stXV coach because I wasn't all that impressed, but the Olave's 6th form were really good with it, were really disappointed it had happened and did a search of their changing rooms quickly to see if they could find any of it but it'd gone by then. We wrote down a list of everything that had gone and the main member of staff there was pretty good, he called the police to get a crime reference number and then we sent them the list the next day. One of our guys had his blackberry messenger screen name changed to 'H.Khan' so we gave the school that name as well but that's as far as I'm aware has been done so far. They said they'd talk to their insurance company but again, I've not heard any update on that.

[Guest55]

Why didn't your teachers check the rooms were locked or ask for secure places to store valuables?

I really don't think you can hold St Olaves to blame and I'm not sure of your motive in posting this at all.

I don't know the school but I don't think you can blame them.

[fjhjdjdn]

Because the host school always takes responsibility for this, as the hosts it's their duty to ensure that the area is secure, that's how every other school manages it, hence the reason not to 'ask' for a secure place to store valuables, because the changing room area should be secured by the staff based right in front of it. Then I guess you've got the question of the access to this building that the staff are based right in front of, either allowing someone completely unrelated to either school to wander in, or to have one of their own pupils/parents/teachers/friends of the school enter the WCGS changing rooms and root around, and then walk out with a bag full of stuff (assuming that someone from WCGS wouldn't take from 80% of the WCGS students there and leave St. Olave's untouched).

The motive in posting this is clear. This is a site made to help people choose their secondary school is it not? Given the importance of this decision, and the options available particularly in the South London area, surely parents should have a full idea about every aspect of a school, and in this case, the lack of security on site, which is arguably the most important aspect of a school?

[Guest55]

It is not be the host schools responsibility - when I've been involved I would always take responsibility for MY pupils and never assume someone else was. I think it is your schools teachers you should be challenging as they are 'in loco parentis'.

No school site can ever be completely secure ... not quite sure why they took such expensive stuff with them anyway.