To wonder how much and how often you give presents to teachers?

[Belladonna666]

The school my child goes to have asked all parents to contribute £10 per child to the teachers communal presents. I don't mind doing this occasionally but they are going to ask for another contribution at the end of the summer of the same amount. This all adds up and we are forever being asked to contribute £ for this and that. I personally think it is more appropriate to give the teachers a present once a year at the end of the summer term. I hardly know my child's new teacher and feel that I would rather contribute at the end of the year.

The problem is that if I don't contribute it will be very obvious as it is a small school with a lot of well off parents for whom £10 is pocket money but we are on a small budget and it is a lot for us to be paying out £40 per year just for communal presents (for both my children when my youngest starts school).

AIBU?

I'd definitely not contribute that much' I'm a teacher & have never heard of such a thing - but as a mum I'd decline to contribute & say you're doing your own thing (and if your own thing is nothing that's more than fair enough!) love cards & best gift I ever got was a homemade book made by every one of my lovely if wild Year 10s when I went on mat leave. They did a page from each of them & wrote v sweet messages & photos in about our past 4 years as a form. I wept & have treasured it ever since.
My sister works in a major private prep & gets amazing gifts at Christmas but never expects them & is always shocked & v v grateful. I've got choc fingers once & was v happy!

Slightly different but our nursery (attached to the local University) asks us not to give staff gifts of significant value (and NOT cash or vouchers) as they are not allowed to accept them.

Last year I did a box of chocolates and a Lush bath bomb for each worker in DD's room. Probably cost about £3.50 each as I don't pay much for chocolate from staff shop.

dd1 (5) will send her teacher a homemade card. no present.
at the end of term last year she gave some homemade biscuits to the teacher and TA. I sent a thank-you card as well.

dd2 (2) will send a box of (shop-bought) biscuits into nursery for the staff room. They don't have terms, so I give a Christmas thank-you instead of an end of term thanks-you.

That is completely wrong OP, and I'm delighted that I've never taught in a school where that would be acceptable. Tell the parent group that are asking for it that they are wrong on many different accounts.
Get the head involved.

It's not very personal is it? So the teacher gets an embarrassingly forced voucher and at the same time is denied the adorable sticky homemade best teecher card they might have got had the parents not been strong-armed into stumping up cash instead?

I am a teacher and I give a present at the end of the summer term only. Most years I give a gift voucher (equal amount to TA and teacher), last year I gave chocolates instead though. What I consider more important than the gift is to make the effort to let them know how much we have appreciated with hard work all year with a letter both from ourselves and a separate one from DS.
Personally I think the whole Christmas presents for teachers thing is faintly ridiculous.

Legally if they are being given vouchers for£10 plus they should declare it to the tax man!

How come vouchers are taxable? They are a gift, not an income, and they aren't money.

Where does the line get drawn between giving a teacher a gift and giving an acquaintance a gift? Some teachers, and especially TAs, know parents of children in their class out of school, particularly in small village schools.

It's all very complicated!

I think all present-giving to teachers should be stopped.... end of. There's no need for it at all. As someone said - we all get paid.

I don't need Christmas decorations, smellies or candles; I don't need home-made presents (I've enough of my own dcs' rubbish lying around); I don't need cakes or cookies or candy (I'm fat enough already ).

I don't even expect people to labour over a home-made card - I think they are most appreciated by members of the family. A cheap little bought one with a decent message of appreciation or best wishes for the New Year would suit me fine.

My kids teachers are getting some homemade skittle vodka in a Christmas tree bottle with a tree dec made by the kids.

Our school seems to discourage christmas cards etc byt putting in the newsletter that the teachers are not sending cards but donating to charity X and inviting parents to do the same and to sign a big communal card that is left up in school.

Persnoally I like to give something at Christmas to recognise all the hard work they do. Since it is a small school and each child will have had contact with each member of staff at some point in the year I give a big jar of hommade biscuits, cinder toffee and other festive treats, the label on it says something lik e"to all the staff at X school, thank you for all your work this year".

A personal thank you to the class teacher is for the end of the school year. We didn't give a present, I just let ds1 choose a card and write what he wanted in it.

It would br taxable as it is seen as'for services rended' . You wouldn't give them a gift if they didn't teach your children.

That is extortionate,this can't be for real surely!!!!That's £600 a year!!!!They should be paying tax on that at the very least.

Bullying hard working parents many of whom are struggling at the moment into handing over vast amounts of cash for buggar all to somebody paid generously with tax payers money is appalling.Just can't believe school are sending out instructions like this -really!!!!

I've got 3 kids-£30 this Christmas would go a loooong way.My 3 have chosen a £2 decoration each.

Blimey our school is by no means perfect but they would never,ever in a million years send begging letters to line teachers pockets.

Totally inappropriate and really quite unprofessional for teachers to accept large value gifts and as Fairy says, aren't there tax implications? .

In many organisations employees are banned from accepting gifts of any sort - where my parents worked gifts either had to be refused or if that was very awkward they would all be 'pooled', people could 'buy' them for the proper value and all money donated to charity (this is at one of the UK's most successful companies so clearly a workable policy ).

I have never given a teacher a gift, I do write a personal letter (if the teacher has been outstanding ).

Can I remind Mumsnetters that the people who do deserve our thanks and gifts at Christmas are all the volunteers who do so much for our children, Brownie Leaders, sports coaches etc. - people who give up their time and energy with no 'payment' or salary or large pension.

I don't give presents at all, I think all this competitive teacher gift giving is absolutely ridiculous.
There's no way on earth I'd give £40 a year just to buy the teachers presents (which is what it would be for me with two children in school.) In fact I'd be hugely tempted to tell them to go swivel.
I think the PTA or whoever's hare brained idea this was has got a bloody cheek.

DS' escort and driver deserve a gift, whatever you lot say!

Don't blame the school it is the parent council at fault.

When not on maternity leave I'm a teacher. The nicest presents are useful and thoughtful - for me, a lovely keyring stands out, pens are always handy, mugs. Endless boxes of chocolate are overwhelming. The best present I ever had was all about the thought. It was from a Y6 boy whose family weren't well off at all and he ate his free school dinners like a hoover. He was a fab member of the class who loved school - his ambition was to go to college! He was late to school on the last day of the term, then came rushing in, all excited, present in hand. A small box of maltesers that he had obviously got with his own limited pocket money, still in the brown paper bag from the corner shop. They were a present from HIM, that he wanted to give. That was my favourite present that year.

And I've always bought my class xmas presents too.

Genuine question - why are teachers allowed to accept gifts but in other professionals, it is forbidden?

*professions

Suggest to the PTA that people give what they can afford only rather then 10 pounds per teacher.

In fact you could just put 5 in an envelope and say that this is your contribution.

or don't give anything and just make a nice cake with a home made card. To be left in the staff room. I have done this every year for 6 years and the staff are always very thankful as they are on their knees by the end of the year.

I don't give them anything- I was under the impression they are paid for what they do!

Not that I am remotely trying to justify the ridiculous strong-arming of present buying that seems to be going on at primary (I'm secondary and am lucky to get a 'Merry Christmas' as the kids help themselves to the tins of Celebrations I buy!) just to say teachers do not always get paid for what they do.
After school clubs, revision sessions, residential trips, sports fixtures, competitions, concerts, plays, proms and discos are all staffed voluntarily. A thank you would be nice if your child benefits! Someone upthread said that thanks should be reserved for Scout and Guide leaders and so on who give up their time unpaid, but teachers do a lot of this too.