Teachers don’t want Thank You Teacher gifts

You do something thats very stressful, not well paid and not properly respected. You have chosen to do it for the kids. You love the kids. So you do appreciate any gift, handmade has made me choke up in the past!

My son is in learning support. His teacher and assistants are absolutely amazing. I usually buy them vouchers for M&S for Christmas and the end of year so they can treat themselves. He’s diabetic and autistic and they go out of their way to meet his needs. I just want to let them know how grateful we as a family are.

I know she isn’t a teacher.

OP’s history would indicate not a teacher, not a parent and i would hazard a guess…. doesn’t have many if any people to buy for

I bet OP is a person who buys people charity gifts such as adopt a goat for Christmas and then happily receives gifts for herself.

As a teacher, I hated reading your opening post. I appreciate any card or gift given by pupils and parents.
Lack of gratitude is vile.

The mugs are getting a hard time on this thread but I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and confess I rather like them. We usually put them in the kitchen cupboard at school, so they get plenty of use, and I don't mind looking at an affirming 'Top Teacher' slogan with my morning cuppa. I also happily eat homemade biscuits etc! The bottom line, which many on here have already said, is that we teachers don't expect but are grateful to receive.

Good grief OP, I was a teacher for a long time. We love presents. Wine, flowers, chocolate, no problem at all.

Teaching forv25 years, never once seen 26 kids in a class of 31 bring gifts, never once seen all these teachers swapping gift cards.
LISTEN to the actual teachers on this thread

And every teacher on here has agreed with that

Meanwhile my teacher friend built a mug wall in her home office to store every ugly mug given to her by a child. She loves her hideous mug collection and treasures every one.

Again, just because you have two ungrateful, snobby teacher friends, doesn't mean you speak for all teachers. Many are delighted just to have been thought of, even if that thought manifests as a tacky mug or £5 bottle of plonk.

Sounds a bit fucking ungrateful tbh. We all get given shit gifts but just say thanks and throw them. It isn’t all about you you know!

I used to work in a school and crap alcohol would be used in the next raffle, so never went to waste

I always found it easier to give in to the fact that children now think it's normal to give gifts and, hence, I went along with it.
I'd let my DCs choose the gift because it was being given in their name.
It may not have been a gift voucher or money behind the till at a local restaurant so the teacher doesn't have to cook that night (the night before they've got quite a lot of time off work anyway), but, as so many have said, teachers don't expect anything at all.

Tipping, in some jobs (cf waiting tables; taxi driving) now seems the norm and a tip is only witheld if the job done has been below standard.
I've certainly tipped over and above when a teacher's been particularly good.
Maybe the automatic clubbing-together for a voucher - regardless of how each individual child perceives that teacher - is a good thing. Like a restaurant service charge.

I think you only posted this to be controversial or to justify you not wanting to buy teacher gifts yourself!

How is alcohol an embarrassing gift if you don’t drink? Just say thank you and regift it.

I also think you underestimate the value of chocolate as a gift - great as a regifting stock.

But seriously the hand made card and gift are worth so much more.

On one of my teaching placements, my class teacher mentor was really unpleasant and a bully. The school was in a very well heeled neighbourhood. I will never forget her telling me that one of the nice things about teaching there was that you got expensive gifts at Christmas and in the summer. However she was the sort of person that could take a nice thing and make it horrible on many levels.
"Yes," she said to me, "one year I got a designer bag from one of the parents. I took it straight to the charity shop. Can't remember what designer. Of course YOU'D KNOW."
She then described the bag. I don't know what designer I was expecting, but it was a Cath Kidston bag back when they were all the rage.
I still have all the cards and letters from the kids I taught on my PGCE year and despite never teaching, treasure them.

Errr… they’re gifts ???
They get what they’re given.
And be grateful about it.

a long time ago, in my first teaching year, in a secondary school, my first class bought me, after they had clubbed together (that was the great bit) an ash tray (didn’t smoke!) and a beer mug, (I drank wine), they weren't to know.. There was an effort behind it and not a “best teacher card” that was given to every teacher. I got just one gift from the whole class. Far better than 30 pieces of commercialised rubbish.

When I was teaching, gifts were never expected, but always gratefully received. All of my colleagues felt the same. And I never received a mug

Speak for yourself OP
a little thank you for cleaning up tears, blood, puke, wee is worth a lot even ‘cheap’ wine
it’s the thought not the the gift/ cost that counts

Clearly another reason I couldn't be a teacher 🤣

I've taught thousands of kids. I still value the gifts they give.

I once asked the teacher what she needed and bought glue sticks and pencils for the classroom