To feel sorry for all the teachers who are about to be inundated with shite gifts

My DC primary school used to do whole class collections and get £200-300 of John Lewis vouchers for the teachers.
Occasionally we used to make home made biscuits or chocolates ...but since joining MN I've been educated that lots of people dislike (are put off) home made food (I hope DC teachers didn't bin any of it) usually with a card.

I frequently email teachers thanking them if my DC have done well at something, enjoy an experience at school or the teacher has gone above and beyond. It's a minefield what to send as a gift esp after reading multiple MN threads on what not to get. I work in an industry where positive feedback is very rare but people nitpick or complain about all sorts so I know its nice to get a thank you or positive message.

A card and a packet of nice biscuits.

Ah, happy days - you can get a pack of Lidl own-brand Nice biscuits for about 40p!

ah, i had presumed more wealthy parents the more £££ value for gifts, quite an assumption ill admit.

Similar to state.

whats the gift giving like at private schools for teachers ?

Because one of the things we should all learn is good manners.

My ds has just left secondary school. He didn’t give the teachers anything before he left because he wants to wait until he’s 18 to take them wine. He’s doing them all a nice card to go with it. I thought he should probably have given them something before he left but he has his own ideas. I’m sure they will be happy to receive it.

All gifts are received with love because it's an expression of their gratitude and the cute notes and cards are actually the best as it gives you a real reflection of what they takeaway from your lessons and sometimes the gifts are a good laugh😂. Once a kid brought me kebabs from his dad's takeaway 😋they really were good! Another lil one gave me her mum's handbag 😂🙏... I offered to give it back but mum was insisting I kept it😂💜🙏

That's odd considering it's end of year gifts! Surely the time to bribe a teacher is at the beginning of the year? 🤣

I'm secondary. I'll take anything. But mainly pens. Please bring me black, ball point pens. Based on the packs I buy from amazon, I need about 250 to break even.

Do men worry about this?

Thought not.

I do! I have a shoe box where I have kept every single note or card sent to me by a pupil. It reminds me why I do this job.

Even the note from a Y8 saying he "still didn't like science, but I made the reproduction lessons really entertaining and he especially liked the practicals".

😖My first thoughts were WFT?!?! I certainly did not do reproduction practicals with 13 year olds!!!!! What he actually meant was the chemistry topic we did before that and made squeaky pops with hydrogen gas!

Who cares. If folk want to give tacky presents let them get on with it. Teachers should accept graciously.

Maybe parents could support a charity and top it up at key times eg end of term.
They could also give a nice personal gift and card alongside this too.

That way, everybody gains.

Our class reps always did a collection, no pressure and no minimum amount. They’d give us white stickers to decorate and for the child to sign their name/ add message if they wanted to, this would then go in a big card therefore the children were involved. Teachers /assistants would usually get vouchers.

I know it sounds ridiculous but there are actually policies in place in many schools around gifts and this is in line with bribery law. This is from my school’s policy. The head needs to record in a register any individual gift of over £25 or any group gift over £50 and be satisfied that the gift’s purpose is not dodgy 🙄

Why not hint to the children about this then.
I'd gladly buy that for the teacher.

I always used to get Pritt sticks and tissues in primary so good to have that confirmed!

🤣🙏

For the rest of the simpletons on this site, and there are plenty, it's not a teacher who wrote the post!
I write this every year when this groundhog topic comes up, my late OH who was a primary teacher got the usual load of gifts during his career but the ones he kept were the letters from parents, one dates back to 1974.

I think there is far more angst and discussion about this on MN than is warranted.

• No parent should feel they ought to buy a present for their child's teacher.
• Teachers don't expect presents
• Contrary to popular belief, most people don't buy 'World's Best Teacher' tat.
• Most commonly bought individual gifts are chocolate, wine, toiletries and stationery, all of which could be re-gifted if necessary.

Most places have conteacts along the line on "all gifts above" or "all gifts thay may be consideted as favour in return".
And I worked with barristers.
So yeah, much better to collect and get a decent gift or better voucher.
No one needs fucking 27 cups a year.

We have 32 kids in DD’s class, usually we all contribute £10, some ppl might not but yes, based on last year we collected around £250, and divided it among the main teacher and teaching assistants in John Lewis vouchers and a few small bits.