Christmas Dec '17: How much do teachers spend from their own pockets

[TeacherSCPS]

After reading some of your articles, I thought you may like to see some of the data that I collected. Staff were asked if they would like to contribute to the quick survey asking them how much they have spent on classroom items and end of term events. The results are as follows:

Staff personal spending in school (pre-christmas)

£24.00 £4.50 £50.00
£20.00 £35.00 £20.00
£50.00 £2.50 £20.00 total £1,036.00
£40.00 £40.00 £25.00 mean £31.39
£20.00 £40.00 £35.00 highest £60.00
£50.00 £10.00 £15.00
£50.00 £30.00 £30.00
£50.00 £25.00 £25.00
£25.00 £40.00 £60.00
£25.00 £50.00 £40.00
£45.00 £15.00 £25.00

…. Fifty staff were asked, seventeen either did not spend any money or chose not to answer

[IsabellaDMC]

Is this primary or secondary? When you say 'staff' do you mean all school staff, classroom staff (i.e. teachers and TAs) or just teachers? What kind of school is it? "17 either did not spend any money or chose not to answer" - could you separate it in to the two categories please?

Sorry for the millions of questions, but the numbers would mean much more with a bit of context. It would make an interesting research project to look in detail at how much money, overall, school staff are propping up budgets with. Especially if we could compare that to the donations from parents to the PTA. (My personal hypothesis is that in state schools staff contribute more per person than parents.)

[TeacherSCPS]

hi

we are a secondary special school (11-19). all staff were asked if they wanted to contribute. the missing 17 staff crossed off their names to say that they had received the data collection sheet, but did not enter any information (maybe they had no time to fill it in or were uncomfortable disclosing the info) .... i can't split them into further categories i'm afraid....

another 26 staff did not take part at all and didn't sign off their names on the data collection sheet

[parklives]

But what's your point?
I'm not a teacher but I spend money on bringing treats etc into work on the lead up to Christmas for my colleagues.

[TeacherSCPS]

.... the point is that i'm helping to answer a question that another thread asked about. the same question has been asked in the TESonline and the huffington post

[Rainuntilseptember]

Parklives it’s not just treats though, it’s class resources - pencils, glue, glitter, post its etc etc - I’ve replaced broken remote controls more than once for example at my own expense, and bought many DVDs I wouldn’t otherwise buy.

[Areallthenamestaken]

£0. If the budget can’t stretch to it, it doesn’t get bought!

[NightCzar]

But I suppose you don't know if it's classroom items or gifts/treats.

Might be better to ask at a different time of year.

[cricketballs3]

I typically spend around £30 on class prizes at Christmas but have also spent previously £50+ on extra curricular things such as enterprise