Teacher gifts x 10!! Ideas please

NBirdy

Hmm, I was wondering about getting some plain white mugs and letting my DD1 (she's 4) decorate them with a picture of each of her teachers, and maybe writing their name on too. Then I was going to fill them with Cadbury's Heroes and wrap them in cellophane. However lots of you on here have said that teachers get over-run with mugs so now I'm not sure.

My daughter attends 2 different pre-schools, one finishes next week but the other one she will continue with until late August, so I get a bit longer to plan that one! For them (they've been really really good with her, and my youngest will be going there next year too) I was thinking about getting DD to decorate some small terracotta plant pots and then put a pretty plant of some sort in them? I had planned for her to grow something from seed for this but forgot all about it! The one that finishes next week was going to be mugs but I'll have a rapid rethink now, probably do an Oxfam gift instead though I'm not sure it'll go down too well.

One problem I've found is that neither pre-school has a staff room, so I don't know that the teachers get chance to stop for a coffee/biscuit? I wanted to do a tea/coffee/sugar/squash/biscuits type of hamper last year but can't see where they would use it. Not sure how they would share out chocs/biscuits with no staff room, plus I'm sure they get swamped with all that anyway.

DD will also do a card like we did at Christmas, with a picture of the teacher/TA drawn on the front and DD will write their name and her own inside, and I'll add a little note about what she says her favourite thing to do with that person is.

barbiedoll

I don't tend to buy presents for teachers because
a) I can't afford it
b) I'm sure that with a class of 30 or so kids, the poor teacher who comes to work by train or bus, will not appreciate having to carry home 30 mugs/boxes of chocs/bunches of flowers etc etc

When my son left primary school, I emailed the Head to thank him and his staff for caring for my son for the last 7 years. I named all of his teachers and classroom assistants, I alluded to the couple of times that my kid had played up and stated that I appreciated how they had dealt with him and I also thanked them for the hard work that they had done at the end-of-term "talent show" which was absolutely fantastic that year.

The Head replied, thanking me for my email, and saying that he had read it out in the staffroom that morning and that he had printed out a copy to put on the noticeboard. He said that his staff really appreciated the acknowledgement of their work and effort, and that it cheered everyone up on a dreary Monday morning.

I get quite a few presents in my line of work (midwifery) but one of my women, who I''d helped through a particularly torrid breastfeeding battle, telephoned my boss and told her how great I was, etc etc. Now that's what I call a useful present!

littlepinky84

My ds2 just left pre-school after 2 years at the same, I was heartbroken and the day before they finished they had a graduation thing and i had taken some pictures, I then went home and jazzed them up abit on photoshop, added some text saying thank you for being my teachers and added a hand written card from me saying how much i had appreciated all the help they had given ds2 and how much he had helped him flourish and a great base for learning in the future, They were reduced to tears and absolutly loved the gift.

Logan112

Stickers for the teachers to use in school are inexpensive, small, appreciated and will actually be used! You can get them personalised too e.g. Mrs Smith says Well Done!
May be too late to order now for this term, but may be worth a quick look on ebay / amazon / PTS to check.

ciderwithrosie_2

Logan112 wrote: »

Stickers for the teachers to use in school are inexpensive, small, appreciated and will actually be used! You can get them personalised too e.g. Mrs Smith says Well Done!
May be too late to order now for this term, but may be worth a quick look on ebay / amazon / PTS to check.

That's a much better idea!

madtrekker

Do you have a photo of your child(ren) with the teacher(s) in question or perhaps a photo of a memorable event from the past year (nativity play, summer fete etc.)? If so, why not get a personalised thank you card which I'm sure they'll treasure as a momento of the year. Snapfish and other online photo places do them for a couple of quid each (or cheaper if you're getting several with exactly the same design) and they deliver within a few days.

make_me_wise

The best gift of all is a little kid coming up to you on the last day of term saying 'thanks Mrs/Mr xxx I have loved being in your class, have a nice summer'. You cant beat a simple thank you from the little person you have spent all year investing time and effort into. Costs nowt, but means everything!

SpikyHedgehog

As a preschool teacher, the best 'gift' we get is the parents and the child saying 'Thank you', especially when the child is leaving us. I felt really hurt last term when the 4th and youngest child in a family left us & neither he or mum said 'thank you and goodbye'. I was a bit pathetic, I know, but those little words mean so much!

Many preschool and private nursery staff are paid minimum wage... We also love a packet of biscuits to keep in the kitchen for grabbing with coffee or tea, or to help staff meetings go well ;-)

I've got a box of chocolates for DS2's teacher as she's really helped him this year, and I send biscuits in for the staff room.

Vaila

Surely a simple "Thankyou" or a handwritten note will suffice, or a big box of biscuits for the staffroom? If I were a teacher the last thing I would want is kids photos and hand decorated mugs.

MadDogWoman_2

It was the first year of doing this for me as my DD was in Playgroup/Preschool.

Where she attended had to move just after Christmas as the church hall they did use flooded during the cold weather.

I bought them a £10 giftcard from ELC to help restock as all the equipment was ruined. I bought a card but did get my DD to draw a picture in it for them.