Teachers, some advice please

pmlindyloo

Just to widen this out a bit more.

It doesn't have to be food. Perhaps a selection of different teas, some new mugs, a plant for the staff room, a new kettle - that kind of thing . Perhaps you could ask the secretary/office manager if there is anything they need for the staff room.

harrys_dad

What a lovely idea OP, your son's school is lucky to have you as a parent. Personally I disagree with others, as a clearly home made gift shows more thought and appreciation than grabbing a £5 tin of chocs at the supermarket. I worked as a teacher for 35 years in 7 different schools and never knew a home made cake in the staff room to last longer than 20 minutes.

clearingout

I always do a Christmas staff room hamper for my children's school - with three children, this is considerably cheaper than buying everyone they like a gift! (And I nearly died one year when I forgot the lovely teaching assistant who had been particularly amazing).

I look for a suitable basket as I'm going along during the year (I have three for this year so I'm sorted for a while!) and then from about October onwards, I pick up nice biscuits, coffee, Xmas themed chocolate etc. to put in it. My local florist happily sells me some cellophane and a ribbon tops it all off! They always seem happy with it and my children now look forward to bundling it all together.

I am also a teacher (although secondary) and food of any variety (homemade or not) doesn't last long in our staff room. However, there will always be those who don't like to eat it if they don't know where it comes from - no matter how lovely the child might be. I confess to being one of those people so I wouldn't do homemade.

FatVonD

If you really want to include something savoury what about a pack of cheese straws?

I like the idea of mince pies too.

BargainJunky

Both of my sons (Year 1 and Year 6) will be taking tealight candles in holders for their teachers/ta's. I found an appropriate poem when my youngest was in nursery and managed to buy Christmas tea light holders for the bargain price of 19p each in Sainsburys a while ago.

I now just have to work out how many I need as the eldest's teacher did a vanishing act three weeks ago and he now seems to have 'loads' of different teachers.

On the subject of eating home made cakes I hope that my scones with butter/fresh cream and jam didn't end up in the bin at the end of the summer term. I was baking like a mad woman to get four dozen cooked in time for morning break.

moomoomama27

Be careful about putting nuts of any sort in, most schools have a but free policy, especially primaries, and I really would say, don't bother wasting time on homemade, especially primary parents, there's very few brave enough to sample it just before Christmas with the fear of getting food poisoning! I've seen wonderful cakes etc end up in the bin as well as mugs and novelty items, bookmarks and anything personal to your child.

I was certainly enlightened once I started working in schools!!

splishsplash

I think hampers are great - we get lots of them at work. We get pamper hampers (with hand cream, handwash, body lotions, shower gels, reed diffuser kits, scented candles etc), food hampers varying from sweet/savoury, teas/coffees, christmas puds/chocolates/wine to fruit hampers.

I have to say all of them are equally popular - we tend to pool and split them up, so everyone takes something they like. For instance, I rarely drink so wines would be lost on me. Others mightn't eat chocolate so would go for the fruits.

Unfortunately, unless I know the giver (and their houses) well, I would leave the homemade stuff behind. It would usually end up in the bin.

kingfisherblue

Apologies for not returning to this thread earlier, it has been a really bad time with illness taking it's toll.

Firstly, there will definitely be no homemade stuff. I can't stand cooking or baking. Secondly, thank you for all of the suggestions and comments. I've decided to stick to a variety of sweet and savoury snacks that are easy to grab on the way out of the staff room. Im undecided on whether to include handcream or not as yet, but I may do.

I think that, apart from a gift voucher that I have to buy, that is all of my Christmas presents sorted out and bought. I'll complete this hamper next week with my son's help - he loves Christmas, and is counting the days until we start wrapping everything. He'll enjoy putting together a hamper for his teachers. I have a couple of baskets that I picked up earlier in the year, and all my cellophane, ribbons, and tags. I just need to buy the rest of the contents.

Thanks to everyone who has helped x

kingfisherblue

Sorry, I should have added that I won't be including nuts, as having a severe allergy to almonds myself, we avoid all nuts in our house. I don't know if anyone in the school or on the staff has an allergy, but it's something that I won't risk, as I know the potential consequences myself.

trailingspouse

It's a lovely idea - when I was a teacher I remember getting loads of gifts at Christmas and also at the end of the year, which was very kind of the parents. But my classroom assistant was forgotten by many of them. I would always make sure that we shared the gifts between us, so we took home equal numbers of bottles, chocs etc. Also very difficult if the CA (or the teacher) is part time - if they don't happen to work on the last day of term, they get nothing.