Large end of year teacher/Head teacher gifts

Hi OP,

We do quite a lot at our school. Teachers generally get a bottle of champagne, flowers, fancy chocs and a voucher of between £100-£200. Headmistress and deputy headmistress get the same(ish), but no vouchers and it's coordinated across the classes so they get a range of different gifts, rather than, for example, 7 flower bouquets. Some parents do additional gifts during the school year as a class gift e.g. spa vouchers.

None of the parents mind contributing though as the teachers, headmistress and rest of the school team are all amazing and we're very lucky to have them at our school. For a lot of us, if our children weren't at this brilliant outstanding school they'd be at private school and we'd be paying a fortune, so chucking in £50 and the occasional £10-£20 every year seems entirely reasonable.

Don't forget to say that expensive gifts make most teachers uncomfortable.

Every year, Mumsnet threads asking for ideas about an end of year present have many, many messages from teachers saying that there's no need to be presents and that we would be happy with a card with a personalised message and/or an appreciative email to the headteacher.

I'm writing an article for the BBC website about this topic - are parents under pressure to donate too much for these end of year thank you gifts - and whether you can say no. If anyone is interested in chatting to me, I'd love to hear from you. Direct message me? Thanks Lucy

Wow. Teachers, along with binmen, council workers etc aren’t allowed to accept gifts round here. Even the ‘Apple for teacher’ type gift is banned.
And reading the op, just as well. That’s ridiculous

Also can’t fathom why the head teacher gets anything. Do you even interact much with the head? I see my DC’s head teacher about 3 times a year at school events. They’re paid enough!

This is insane and the teachers must surely feel embarrassed accepting such an expensive gift for merely doing the job they are paid to do. My cousins teach and have said their favourite gifts are the handmade ones, they don’t care for anything fancy and they definitely don’t want “best teacher” tat or endless chocolate as it ends up at the food bank. Just a tip.

They need to be reported to the council as they can’t accept expensive gifts/money. I think it’s less than £50 and then beyond that school staff have to declare it. £1 each would be a decent voucher for the teacher.

@Vigjilenca . I don't understand why the headteacher does not stop this practice...

I think I know why..😂 But seriously speaking I don't know why you give such a large amount to a head teacher? Here only the teacher and the TA gets something (parents give 5-20£).

Well l hope you share your biscuits and chocs with her!

Eek! It used to just be a little gift, not a planned big one! Sad this has happened, usually organised by someone who has no idea that teachers are honestly just over the moon for a card and don't want or expect expensive things.

A voucher is always the best gift and not a massive cost one.

Wow thats insane!

I never donated to teacher collections, just never occured to me to give any sort of "cheers for doing your job ok" cash gift. I did always take a few boxes of biscuits/chocs in for the office though.

@MmeDubois7 no monetary/collection gifts or non at all? We usually drop a box of posh biscuits or truffles or something into the office and a thank you card. Not part of the class collection, just from us. Think a few do it across the school.

I am a teacher and I've never heard of a HT or admin staff getting gifts. Our admin assistant is excellent and take on duties above and beyond her role but doesn't get gifts.

You don't have to contribute or you could give a small gift of your own. The gifts from children is obviously separate from a leaving present from colleagues. £500 is a huge collection. It's not normal to collect for a head teacher. TAs occasionally get a gift from 1-2 parents.

Those are crazy amounts … I’m moving to work at that school!!😂😂 A voucher is a really welcome gift , but as far as I know most schools near me average between £40-£100 collected per class if they are lucky . Anything over £50 has to be declared. £2k for the head is utterly insane - if it’s such a wealthy area why not donate to the PTA which means the money goes to support the children and school equipment?!

That’s crazy amounts of money. I work as a teacher in a school and never heard of anything near that amount. Also, I would feel very uncomfortable with my TA getting less than me. They work so hard for just above minimum wage, I would rather the TA got more than me.

That shows you have no idea what the admin staff do if you don't believe they deserve anything

It can be very pressurised though especially if there's a school/class WhatsApp group with the Queen Bee demanding contributions. You see threads on here about it from time to time.

Difficult to say no. Of course, "no is a complete sentence" and all that and you can just mute the group and ignore the requestsdemands

School admin here- if any of our teachers received this they would be mortified.

Me on the other hand....!!

Yet Bribery Act 2010 still in force. And where I work (not in education and not in the public sector) you can accept gifts up to the value of £50. And we don't have service users like parents who would get together to buy a big present that blows the limit.

It's quite embarrassing too.

Agree if they can raise that sort of money it would be better going to resources for the school. If it's a private school, give it to a charity.

Health professionals are not allowed to accept gifts as has been said on msny similar threads

I always thought the point of these kind of gifts was for the child to learn about appreciating the people who help them.

Some teachers are. Some teachers are bringing food for children that aren’t fed in the morning. Surely it’s up to those who want to participate in a present? If you don’t, then don’t.

Blimey. £2k and a six week holiday. Ding ding ding.

Good grades, prizes. You’d be surprised, some parents are crazy