EURÊKA - THE LOST AND FOUND SERVICE IN UCCLE

EURÊKA is a lost-and-found service that allows students at Uccle to find, whenever possible, their lost items, thanks to the volunteer work of parents dedicating their time to collect, assemble, sort and inventory lost items and to ensure distribution to the students who lost them.

EURÊKA contact

eureka@uccleparents.org
Follow EURÊKA EEB1 on Instagram!

EURÊKA regular opening hours

All Thursdays: 11.30-14.15
All Fridays: 11.30-14.00

(except during school holidays)

Access to EURÊKA

Due to the limited capacity of the EURÊKA room, the school asks that only a maximum of 50 parents are allowed in EURÊKA on each opening day. We therefore ask those who wish to access the service to please register via the following registration form:

https://www.eventbrite.be/e/eureka-registration-form-formulaire-dinscription-eureka-tickets-309741714807

Only parents having pre-registered via the form will be allowed to enter the school.

The guards will ask proof of registration; so please print out the receipt or be ready to show it on your phones.

If one particular opening day is already fully booked, please choose another date.

If you can no longer come on the selected date, please notify us so that we can assign your place to another parent on waiting list.

Children are allowed to access EURÊKA during the opening hours without prior registration.

Latest Videos from EURÊKA (06/02/2024)

What can you find in EURÊKA?

In EURÊKA one finds clothing and sports equipment* lost by Primary and Secondary students at the Uccle site.
For valuables (watches, mobile phones, sunglasses, keys, wallets ...) or school material (books, notebooks, calculators ...) please check with the following persons:

For Primary, Secretariat MAT/PRI (office ERASME S.0.02);
For Secondary, Mr. Paulet (office: Plato, R232) - or whoever holds that office.

* Sports equipment (school T-shirts, navy blue shorts, gym shoes) without a readable name on them (and/or outside of a bag) are washed by volunteers and are sold second-hand at a price of 2 EUR, obviously with possibility to exchange... The money collected is used for the functioning of Eurêka: primarily for the purchase of printer cartridges to print the weekly lists and the purchase of anti-moisture refills.

Where are we?

EURÊKA is located in the basement of the Erasmus building. You may access it via the "Castle" staircase (see map below).

EURÊKA Collection Points 2022-2023

How EURÊKA Works

Collection of Articles

Every Wednesday a group of voluntary parents collect articles of clothing and belongings in twelve strategic places around the school, before they are brought to the EURÊKA room. They are then counted, sorted and hung.

Sorting

Named articles of clothing etc are written on a list, which is updated on a weekly basis. They are checked against a monthly inventory and they are sorted in alphabetical order in the EURÊKA room. Items which are not named are sorted by the month in which they are found on the clothes hangers in the EURÊKA room.

Volunteers – helping the pupils find their lost items

Volunteers are on hand to help pupils find their lost clothing and belongings when they come to EURÊKA .

Publication of "The List"

The APEEE sends a list of named clothing to parents, by email, according to the inventory, approximately once a month.

Retention of Items

Unmarked items are held by EURÊKA for a period of six months.
Named items are held for approximately one year.
Due to limited storage, items which are not claimed within that time limit, all unclaimed items are donated to charitable organizations.

Donations

To diversify the number of charities who can benefit from these unclaimed items, all suggestions for charitable organisations interested in children’s clothing are welcome.

Advice to Parents

Please label with indelible ink or iron-on labels all sports items, bags, coats, hats, scarves, gloves, jumpers and jackets ; everything that a child will take off during their lunchtime breaks. Labels can become illegible after a number of washes, thus making it impossible for the item to be identified and returned.
Please label the items in an easily found place – collar, belt, inside pocket etc…
Please ask your child to look for their items in THEIR classrooms (the children change classrooms often, even in primary), in the canteen, in the swimming pool, and especially ask them to ask their bus drivers (including those who drive on Fridays) who keep these items in their bus (they do not only work for our school).
Tell your children to look after their belongings, especially in Secondary School. The lockers can be also used for this.
Encourage your children to come to the EURÊKA building often; if they have not found their belonging on their first visit, it may be because the items have not yet been sorted or found by the EURÊKA volunteers.
If your child is a little apprehensive about asking for help from the volunteers, don’t hesitate to write a note (English or French), describing the lost item, and ask your child to give this to the EURÊKA volunteers, who will do their best to help.

WANTED: Volunteers!

We are still looking for volunteers: two or four hours a month can be enough to offer a valuable service.

This service is run on a voluntary basis by parents.
The school’s involvement is limited to the granting of a room.
Volunteers’ limited availability is understood and respected.
Volunteers are not responsible for the lost and found items.

If you have some time to devote, please contact us at: eureka@uccleparents.org

Some Figures

During the school year 2022-2023:

We collected a total of 4,199 items
A total of 1,703 items were returned during the year: 1,011 items with name and 692 items without name
We have not yet added Fabiola's unrecovered items, which are due to be removed at the end of September 2023

During the school year 2021-2022:

We collected a total of 2,856 items
More than a third of the clothes that came in were returned
Around 60% of the clothes that went out had a name on them