Not unusual, my dd came home without knickers during the summer term. I asked her why and she told me she wanted to get a bit of air to her 'bit' and the knickers impeded the air flow up the leg of her shorts. I did search the lost property box without success.

do they have a dressing up box? they do at my dds preschool (though to my knowledge they have all gone home dr5essed in the clothes they were expected too but last week someone lost a pushchair, as two families had the same model and there was a mix up so you never know)

DD is usually wearing something totally different to that of what she was wearing when I dropped her off at nursery school. Reasons have been:

1. got wet/muddy, hence total costume change
2. Friend liked dress/shirt/sweater, so gave it to them
3. They decided to swap

<<note to self to label>>

I expect the mother has insisted a note goes home (she probably thinks all the kids are desperate to get hold of her little darling's gorgeous dress ). The nursery staff are probably as bemused as you are and are just hoping this will lead people to label their kids clothes.

You're probably right and there is almost certainly a totally rational explanation. It was just new on me!

I'm guessing the mum thinks it was in the nursery bag but it wasn't. Or in the scramble to get a favoured toy out of the bag it's fallen behind a cupboard.

DD did come home from preschool sans one shoe recently. But with another alien shoe. Turns out her best friend and her 'shoe swapped' (despite being different sizes and styles ).

Perhaps there was an accident - major juice spill or the like - and girl had been changed into spare clothes whilst dress was put on a radiator to dry? My son came home a couple of times in trousers supplied by the nursery after things like that.

Its not as if they are changing for PE and even if they were they'd be changing back again.

Yet we've had a letter home asking us to check we don't have this girls dress. It also lists some other things but they are things you may expect - hats, coats, jumpers, gloves.

Are dresses regulary lost? DD has been in nursery for 3 years and I've never heard of this