Spill the beans... on end-of-term gifts for teachers

sassyblue

As my son is young and frequently comes home with a sticker on saying he's worked well l have bought personalised pre-printed stickers by the 100 on ebay saying 'Mrs.Robinson says good work'.

But l have to say this is where Boots 75% off sale comes in handy (watch the grabbit board in January). l've bought some lovely kits for a few pounds as it gets expensive what with the class helpers who've also bought an Easter egg for every child at Easter so they have to be thanked for their hard work too.

Naturally we put a card in too that is handwritten by DS.

2giraffes

pleasedelete wrote: »

No Nos

Homemade cakes- no matter how nice you think your house is teachers rarely eat the donated cakes or biscuits- thats why they all have fat dogs!


Not in our school! When our girls have a school trip I always bake muffins for them to take, one trip they took some for the teachers (I didn't want them all at home tempting me!) and now they put in requests for the flavours they prefer!!

I usually just get the girls to make a card for their teacher, and frankly this year that's all we can afford to do.

dmasih

I've just sent pressies for my son's teachers to school today. For the head of preprep and a teacher who he takes some lessons with he took a nice box of chocs just as a thank you for their hard work during the year. For his form teacher and the teaching assistant he gave a debenhams voucher each and a nice box of chocs...I'm now hoping this is ok after seeing the posts re the chocs!
I did include a card for each teacher and spent some time in writing how much we appreciated the hard work and effort they had shown during the year and thanked them for making my son's time at school so enjoyable...he LOVES school!
In previous years we have sent a wine, chocs, book vouchers etc. Always hard to know what would be best and it's always important to us to show our appreciation.

MidLifeCrisis_3

My kids love to choose a pack of posh(er) cookies or shortbread as they love biscuits themselves and they make a homemade card to go with them. They are only £1 ish from Lidl/Tesco, but as they always want to buy for support staff too it soon mounts up and after all it is supposed to be a token gift from a child. We don't do homemade as I know teachers who do throw it away in case of kids poor hygiene when cooking. Maybe if you can convince them otherwise then it's fine!

My mum was a teacher and used to get inundated with chocs, flowers, trinkets, smellies, etc, but she always used and really appreciated everything as she loves kids. Her definite faves were always the homemade cards, bookmarks and pasta necklaces, etc as I think she always found it quite touching of the thought and effort a child had put in for her.

I find it scary that some parents buy £25 vouchers and an orchid, but also think if you don't appreciate what a child has chosen for you then you must be in the wrong job. I quite like the idea of some nice useful stationery for the classroom as classroom budgets are so underfunded and it's something most people don't think of.

pinkmami

I don't give them end of term things. Never have. But I to give them a very small Christmas gift.

turbokez

I think that gifts with personal value, such as hand written cards or thank you notes, are a great way to show gratitude to a special teacher.

The logical conclusion of a culture which applies peer pressure on parents to give bought items to teachers rings alarm bells with me for many reasons, most obviously regarding the effect on the attitude of the teacher to the child whose parents have given more generously. I'm not for one minute suggesting that teachers (or parents, for that matter) are immoral - far from it - but I work in purchasing and have seen first hand the influencing effect of gratuities - it's human nature.

crutches

When my children leave Junior school I donate books for each year to boost the library.Always appreciated

Plus personal cards from the children.My son made one for a trainee teacher that he felt he had learned a lot from in 6 weeks and she was really pleased .

beanymagoo

My childs teacher this year is heavily pregnant so I bought her a baby box filled with johnsons items for the baby. The classroom assistants got gift bags filled with yankee candle samplers or a handwash/handcream duo (everyone uses handwash so was less likely to be given away). In the past when I had a couple of children in nursery at the same time I filled a big box with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and a selection of biscuits for the staff room!

MidLifeCrisis_3

turbokez wrote: »

I think that gifts with personal value, such as hand written cards or thank you notes, are a great way to show gratitude to a special teacher.

The logical conclusion of a culture which applies peer pressure on parents to give bought items to teachers rings alarm bells with me for many reasons, most obviously regarding the effect on the attitude of the teacher to the child whose parents have given more generously. I'm not for one minute suggesting that teachers (or parents, for that matter) are immoral - far from it - but I work in purchasing and have seen first hand the influencing effect of gratuities - it's human nature.

DD's teacher has told the class that they should get her chocolate for an end of term gift, as she loves chocolate, especially Maltesers. I feel this expectation that a child should buy a gift is a step too far. It is down to parents/children to feel that they would like to give and not that they have to give. On the whole this woman is a really unprofessional teacher :mad:(I am not alone in this opinion), but it's difficult when my other kids are buying for their teachers and DD wants to do the same. TBH I felt like scoffing her cookies myself when DD told me this:rotfl:.

xxlouisexx56

My dd is autistic but in a mainstream classroom with a full time one to one helper.
The helper loves candles so I always get her a Yankee candle. I've bought one for the class teacher too. She's obviously very into health and fitness so anything food related would not be appreciated.