Teachers presents - class gift

We never put love from a whole year group - just the people who contribute. Some like to give individual gifts - others none - I see no reason why it should be from year group if people are not contributing. Even £2 is a contribution.

What I did a couple of years ago was organised a class gift but actually filled it with stuff for the classroom like whiteboard pens, colouring crayons and pencils etc. This way it was a gift for the teachers by them being able to benefit from extra resources. Grabbed some stuff for the Amazon wish list etc. There was some money left over for chocolates and a bottle of plonk for each teacher and LSA but didn’t seem so commercial and competitive. The teachers was overjoyed and very emotional at drop off. Card was signed by whole class even though lots of people didn’t contribute I assumed the kids would have wanted to if they could.

Last year I couldn’t afford to contribute for my daughters class gift due to the deadline the parent set and not getting paid until afterwards. Her name got left off the class Christmas card. This pissed me off because I regularly contribute to the school lottery etc and all the usual crap but the timings didn’t work out for this one. It was only 5 out of 30 children’s names who got left off and it was put in the WhatsApp group who had contributed. I left the group and refuse to engage with many of the parents in that year now.

All I can say in response to this is I'm really glad this isn't a thing where I live (not UK). Class whatsapp group? Sounds like a nightmare to be honest. It must be a hotbed of drama, and for things like this liable to create division and bad feeling. Everybody has different opinions on what they want to do, but some may feel pressured into giving cash towards the gift when they don't want to, or don't have it to spare.

I wouldn't expect my child's name to be on the card or present if I didn't contribute. Dd is now in y11 buy when she was at primary she used to make a card and perhaps a few homemade chocolates. The teacher's do get paid to do their job.

And the benefits of a teacher knowing who donated what are?

Blimey, no wonder everyone's skint.

Why would the teacher need to see who and how much was given?!

Money is tight right now for a lot of families. Signing from all the children is best. There may be some children who want to contribute but their parents can't.

honestly setting up a collection pot online (google collection pot) has been the best! it allows each parent to contribute as they wish, the child can upload video or pics with thank you message, the teacher sees how much each parent contributed and who they are.

They always use the money to get vouchers. So each teacher gets over £100 in vouchers. I think it's excessive for Christmas.

That is awful - there could be many parents with more than one child at the school.

Schools should put a stop to it. Cards are more than enough and more meaningful. Most teachers I know give any presents to the charity shop or foodbank.

Retired secondary teacher here.

I just don't understand why you do it. It wasn't a thing back when I was at primary school and wasn't a thing all through my secondary teaching career.

I don't think it should be. Send a card of some kind in with best wishes, etc - but your child's teacher doesn't need gifts from you and putting pressure on other parents by co-ordinating a joint gift is dreadful, in my opinion.

Payday isn’t for another few days so I’d give until the first week of December send a message saying all donations must be in by - date then go from there.

When someone organises this for our class, some parents say, I’ll do my own thing thanks and some contribute to a class gift. The collector of the cash usually buy the gifts and a big card & the kids sign it ( the ones that have joined in the group gift ) we’ve never done from the whole class.
some people like the hassle free approach of giving cash to someone else to sort 🙋‍♀️
and some do their own thing, or nothing at all.

Our class does this every year at Christmas. They ask for £5 per teacher per child. With 3 teachers in the class that's £15. The Christmas before last I couldn't even afford to buy my child new shoes nevermind find £15 for a Christmas gift to teachers. They always put just the child names who contributed. The mum who organises it is quite well off so maybe it doesn't occur to her that some just can't do it.you never no people's circumstances.

Sorry OP I unhelpfully didn't say earlier, if I didn't contribute I wouldn't expect my child to be on the card .

I could always send a separate card from my child

It's probably kind to put from all the kids but not fair.

I think you should wait closer to the time. If it's a few days before school breaks up for Christmas and only 1/3 of the class has contributed then I'd just get those children to sign their names. If it's just a couple of parents who haven't paid up then sign it from the class. Usually teacher presents are just for the end of the year, not Christmas.

When did life become all about 'bigger and better'. Christmas eve boxes, elf on the shelf, 1st Dec boxes, advent calendars costing over £50, hen and stag dos costing people hundreds, baby showers, teachers getting £300 or more at Christmas and end of year.
The list goes on.

We've all gone crazy!

You do know it's only 28th Nov don't you?

I wouldnt dream of putting just these names this early on! Loads of time for people to contribute, last couple of weeks of school yeah I'd call it a day and add to the what's app group that it's final day for contributions etc. Then yeah at that point if only say 8 parents had put in it would be those 8 kids names. As that's who it's off. Not the whole of year 5.

From my days as a school governor, most teachers kept all the cards but gifts were usually donated to charity shops or local foodbanks.

Another one in favour of a handmade card for Christmas and a box of chocolates at the end of the school year. If someone spent £250-400 on a gift for me just for doing my job I would be embarrassed!

More parents may contribute yet, we’re not even in December!

I think a class present is a good idea if most parents are happy to contribute. I know one of my teacher friends, amongst other gifts, ended up with 26 boxes of chocolates a few years ago at Xmas. It’s lovely of people to buy, but the reality is, teachers give lots of the gifts away when they’re given individual gifts and receive so many of the same thing.

I agree. But lots of people werent really answering the op which was asking can i just do the card from x,y and z.

They were just saying they dont like class gifts without saying whether they'd want thier child to be in the card or not.

I wouldn’t expect names to be written in a card when parents object on principle to the idea. This is surely going against their stance? Why would someone assume they have the right to include someone’s name when they have made it known they don’t want any involvement in it?