Have you bought or made teachers gifts this year?

Here_Comes_The_Judge

duchy wrote: »

...and she usually went on holiday as soon as summer term ended.

That can't be right.


I have recently joined MSE and been busy reading 100's posts across all the boards.


There are a number of posts where the amount of time off teachers get, has been pointed out (Half term, Easter, Half term, Summer, Half term, Christmas, all the Bank Holidays, every weekend. Teacher training days, where the school car parks are empty).


However, all the teachers that have responded, say the entire holiday is taken up by "marking papers", and "preparing lesson plans for next term".


So I'm sorry duchy. Teachers don't get holidays.

FreddieFrugal

Here_Comes_The_Judge wrote: »

Teacher training days, where the school car parks are empty.

then they must be on an external training course

AimingForBetter

My boys (yr 1's) made thank you cards - their own ideas, drawing and writing. They quietly handed the cards to teachers and TA's and received genuine thanks and smiles.

Having seen the gifts being handed over last week with the size of bag/parcel increasing as the days passed, it has been getting silly and I'm not getting into that competition. I know teachers work hard (in laws were both teachers) in school and at home doing prep/marking etc but they are doing their job. A simple thank you from the child means such a lot.

Anoneemoose

I make shortbread for them. It is actually quite 'famous' at my kids' school and all of the teachers get very excited when receiving it!! In fact, I was quite embarrassed because one teacher was sat in the middle of boxes of chocs, bunches of flowers and gifts and squealed with delight when I brought my little brown paper bag in!! She taught my (elder) daughter a couple of years ago so knew what it was!

This year I packaged them in some foil takeaway cartons and brown paper bags that the kids decorated with their own thank you pictures.

DomRavioli

Zilch

Hate home-made gifts with a passion. Every single one goes in the bin. From stupid keyrings (no, we don't need 40 key rings) to awful baking, and a whole amount of tat inbetween.

Please STOP buying things. A simple card is enough, I don't want my home filled with tat.

Anoneemoose

Anoneemoose wrote: »

I make shortbread for them. It is actually quite 'famous' at my kids' school and all of the teachers get very excited when receiving it!! In fact, I was quite embarrassed because one teacher was sat in the middle of boxes of chocs, bunches of flowers and gifts and squealed with delight when I brought my little brown paper bag in!! She taught my (elder) daughter a couple of years ago so knew what it was!

This year I packaged them in some foil takeaway cartons and brown paper bags that the kids decorated with their own thank you pictures.

My friend works in the school and the teachers know my house is spotless so I suppose that might make a difference.

onlyroz

Zilch

The only time I ever got my child's teacher a present was when she was going on maternity leave. I don't see the point in giving them something just because you're expected to, and I'm sure they would appreciate something like a hand-made card more than a piece of shop-bought tat.

And when I was at school we never got the teachers anything. When did this "tradition" actually start?

lavandergirl_2

Zilch

I find it a bit disappointing that homemade things do not go well. The time and effort spent on making those things then to find out those are just thrown in the bin.

Cuilean

The last (primary) school I worked in was in quite a deprived area. Most of our families didn't have disposable income, and we never expected presents or cards. We would rather the parents spent the money on their families. There was the odd box of chocolates and smellies, but nothing on the scale of my niece's school this year, where one parent in the class asked each family for £10, so they could thank the teacher with a £300 envelope of cash! :eek:

Home-made cards and gifts are lovely - please don't throw them away. I still have a necklace of paper beads given to me by a girl who's now in year 8. She was 7 at the time. Even if they look tacky and mucky, the child has put a lot of thought into making you something. Having said that, I have "lost" one home-made present, but bear with me on this, because it's a good story. One lad handed over a home made bar of soap, the clear kind like Pears make, studded with what looked like flowers and reeds. I thanked him, and asked what the flowers were. "Nah miss, they're not flowers. That's grass. I picked it from my garden and stirred it in". Couldn't quite bring myself to use the soap after that :laugh:

tom9980

I would estimate my wife received £80-90 worth of gifts this year from 32 children.

I would say we spent £150-200 of our own money on those children over the last year.

About 2/3rds of the class got her a gift and/or card, highest value £10 gift card.

Six children got her the same gift or variant of it, 1 personalised mug, 1 personalised canvas bag, 4 boxes of chocolates and 1 bottle of wine. There was also a multitude of other bits like soap.

None of the parents/children who got her nothing said thank you, which in a few cases given the above and beyond my wife went to for their children would have been appropriate to at least say thanks for.

18 of 32 children returned the hand made educational item we made at the start of the year which took us 6 hours or so to create, we now need to remake those.

In general it was the higher achieving or middle ability children who gave gifts.

---

So what does my wife actually want?

A simple heart felt thank you and hand made card.

maybe a few hours of time at the end of year or help during a school trip?

Volunteers to read with the children because she is lucky to get more than 10-20 minutes per child per week one to one contact.

Parents who check book bags daily for letters/newsletters and that regularly read with children or help them learn at home.

Parents who don't wade in without the full facts and instead seek to blame her or the school for things outside her control.

Parents who listen and take criticism so that she didn't have to write platitudes of how wonderful their child is when the truth is wide of the mark.

Strange how the things she wants aren't gifts and are cheap to do isn't it?