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Original poster

Teacher Christmas presents

36 replies

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2022 07:27

DD is in Y2. I blinked first when they were looking for volunteers to collect money for the teacher gifts and got stuck with it. I had promises that several people would 'get their thinking caps on' bloody radio silence now though 😑
What do I buy? I have £250 and need to buy for 3 people

Teacher - male, 30ish, beardy, geeky type
TA1 - male, 25ish, looks like he does fitness stuff
TA2 - female, 25ish, I don't know anything about her

OP posts:
BeagleMumma · 09/12/2022 07:29

Amazon vouchers, wine and chocolate.

I'm a teacher and always end up with John Lewis vouchers, I'm grateful but NEVER shop there!

SweepTheHalls · 09/12/2022 07:29

Vouchers 😊

bluebird3 · 09/12/2022 07:30

I'd do a small hamper with some nice chocolates, bottle of wine, etc for £30ish plus a £50 gift card to Amazon for each of them.

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EVHead · 09/12/2022 07:30

Vouchers. I got one that local businesses accept - brilliant idea!

alasangne · 09/12/2022 07:30

Sainsburys/Tesco vouchers

Caraoke · 09/12/2022 07:32

We do a voucher for a local shopping centre, loads of shops to chose from including an M&S so if they just want to spend it on wine that fine!

MrsThimbles · 09/12/2022 07:39

I don’t live in the Uk but I just showed this to my daughter who’s a teacher at an international school here. She said she’d be mortified to receive a gift worth this amount any year and not just in a year when so many are struggling.

This is all shades of distasteful and I feel for the staff on the receiving end of it.

leftitabitlate22 · 09/12/2022 07:45

@MrsThimbles oh please

For all you know it might be a private school. We always did a collection at my dc's school, so much easier.

ImNotBella · 09/12/2022 07:46

Do people actually spend this much on gifts for teachers?

I appreciate what they do but this seems extreme.

B1993 · 09/12/2022 07:46

BeagleMumma · 09/12/2022 07:29

Amazon vouchers, wine and chocolate.

I'm a teacher and always end up with John Lewis vouchers, I'm grateful but NEVER shop there!

Amazon vouchers are a great shout.

I’d happily take the chocs but as a mostly non-drinking teacher (who’s currently pregnant anyway), the wine would be drank by DH or taken with us when we visit family over Xmas.

Smarshian · 09/12/2022 07:49

M&S vouchers - good for food, wine, beauty

MrsThimbles · 09/12/2022 07:49

leftitabitlate22 · 09/12/2022 07:45

@MrsThimbles oh please

For all you know it might be a private school. We always did a collection at my dc's school, so much easier.

Oh please what?

My children were all privately educated and the school my daughter teaches at is a fee paying international school.

Its an obscene amount to gift a teacher regardless of what kind of school they teach in.

B1993 · 09/12/2022 07:53

ImNotBella · 09/12/2022 07:46

Do people actually spend this much on gifts for teachers?

I appreciate what they do but this seems extreme.

As I teacher I’d never expect gifts, and any I do receive would range from around £2-£15. I think it is extreme but not unheard of in some places 🤷🏻‍♀️I know that our school policy wouldn’t allow us to accept anything expensive anyway so there wouldn’t be much point.

The loveliest Christmas gift is one I received a couple years ago - a pair of handmade wooden snowmen - which are currently sitting proudly in my window 😊 Which, coincidentally, are either side if a lovely light up decoration also gifted by one of the children at Xmas.

upfucked · 09/12/2022 07:55

EVHead · 09/12/2022 07:30

Vouchers. I got one that local businesses accept - brilliant idea!

They may not live locally.

Original poster
Oysterbabe · 09/12/2022 07:57

Thanks! Amazon vouchers was my first thought.
I don't know what's normal in other schools but ours is a bog standard state primary and we always end up with £250-300 in the pot at Christmas and end of term in the summer. Each class then puts £15 of it in a pot to get stuff for the non-teaching staff.

OP posts:
Original poster
Oysterbabe · 09/12/2022 08:04

I dont know if this is unusual, I've always felt it was a bit off, we also usually split the money with half to the teacher and a quarter each to the TAs.
I'd probably do £100 voucher for the teacher, £50 for each TA and then the rest on wine, chocolates and stuff each.

OP posts:
alasangne · 09/12/2022 08:08

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2022 08:04

I dont know if this is unusual, I've always felt it was a bit off, we also usually split the money with half to the teacher and a quarter each to the TAs.
I'd probably do £100 voucher for the teacher, £50 for each TA and then the rest on wine, chocolates and stuff each.

I'd just do the voucher and yes split as you suggest.

MrsThimbles · 09/12/2022 08:12

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2022 08:04

I dont know if this is unusual, I've always felt it was a bit off, we also usually split the money with half to the teacher and a quarter each to the TAs.
I'd probably do £100 voucher for the teacher, £50 for each TA and then the rest on wine, chocolates and stuff each.

I never understand differentiating between what’s given to teachers and what’s given to TA’s. I feel they’re both equally deserving of appreciation. Not that I’ve ever joined in with class collections. I’ve always done my own thing and I don’t differentiate.

SnoozyLucy7 · 09/12/2022 08:15

MrsThimbles · 09/12/2022 07:39

I don’t live in the Uk but I just showed this to my daughter who’s a teacher at an international school here. She said she’d be mortified to receive a gift worth this amount any year and not just in a year when so many are struggling.

This is all shades of distasteful and I feel for the staff on the receiving end of it.

It’s actually very common to do a parent collection for the teachers at Christmas time and end of year, here in the UK. Usually an amount is suggested per head, and then people pay that or more, or less, or some times people will not contribute at all - and all of that is fine. But at the end the amount that OP has collected sounds about right.

Its actually a wonderful thing to do. Yes, times are hard but generally speaking the teachers do a wonderful but often hard job.

MrsThimbles · 09/12/2022 08:21

SnoozyLucy7 · 09/12/2022 08:15

It’s actually very common to do a parent collection for the teachers at Christmas time and end of year, here in the UK. Usually an amount is suggested per head, and then people pay that or more, or less, or some times people will not contribute at all - and all of that is fine. But at the end the amount that OP has collected sounds about right.

Its actually a wonderful thing to do. Yes, times are hard but generally speaking the teachers do a wonderful but often hard job.

Show quote history

I’m familiar with these collections. It’s not just a UK thing.

And with a daughter and daughter in law who are teachers I’m aware of the work that goes in to being one.

I appreciate your reply but I’m still of the same opinion.

leftitabitlate22 · 09/12/2022 08:27

@MrsThimbles £250 divided between a class of 15 - 20 ? at a prep school. Is about £12-15 contribution to the 3 class teachers per child.

It's hard to buy 3 good gifts for that money individually it's much better to do a collection and get something worthwhile.

SinnerBoy · 09/12/2022 08:31

When did it become a thing to have a collection for teachers? I don't remember it from school at all. When my (now 9) daughter was in nursery, one of the mothers sent a text to the Whats App group, saying she'd set up a Paypal thing, I was quite surprised.

I went to infant school in 1975

leftitabitlate22 · 09/12/2022 08:37

My dc were at primary school from 2009 - 2018, we always had collections. It was started in our class by someone who already had an older child in the school so presumably they had already been going a while before we joined the school. So much easier all round.

alasangne · 09/12/2022 08:40

SinnerBoy · 09/12/2022 08:31

When did it become a thing to have a collection for teachers? I don't remember it from school at all. When my (now 9) daughter was in nursery, one of the mothers sent a text to the Whats App group, saying she'd set up a Paypal thing, I was quite surprised.

I went to infant school in 1975

It's well dodgy unless they publish accounts for it which I doubt they do

alasangne · 09/12/2022 08:41

The worst I hear of is when parents suggest they use it to buy MLM crap