What do teachers actually want?

[bellarations]

At the end of term?
I know teachers don't actually expect presents, but what would like they most like to receive?
Please share your thoughts and ideas.
Is a class collection a better option?

This isn't a thread about whether teachers have the right to strike or not, it's meant to be a useful discussion about ideas for gifts! Wine, chocolates, mugs etc all go down well but a card/something more personal with a message means a lot more (to me anyway). It doesn't have to be an expensive gift.

giraffescancraft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/teachers-pop-up-thank-you-card.html

This is what we made, and joined in with group gift.

A card or letter written by the child or the child and the parent, (or where the child is too young to write some sort of drawing). A card or letter decorated by the child is always really lovely but where time constraints make that impossible then a thoughtful, personal written message will compensate!

A gift is not necessary however a voucher e.g. M&S, John Lewis, Boots, is always welcome, (either individually or from the whole class). If you know the teacher well you may know that she likes a particular type of wine or chocolates. Otherwise a bunch of flowers is lovely too.

How would you feel receiving homemade baked goods?

Honestly? Really would not want them. And the poster way upthread who bakes two cakes a week? Yuk. Creepy.
I was a teacher for years. We're well-paid, we don't want or need gifts. But we're constantly scrutinised, always having to justify our positions, prove our worth.
That's why thank you cards and letters mean so much - especially if they give specific instances of help or support, or something parent and child have valued - because they a) recognise that sometimes we get something right and b) give us evidence when we're asked to prove we're good at what we do.

I think teachers have got a little end-of-term gift this morning - check the news!

Yay! And I don't live and teach in the UK.

Ominous silence on the replacement, though.

Quite a few parents at our school give the teachers homemade food as gifts. We tend to put it in the staffroom and it always gets eaten up (by the young, male teachers with the appetites of horses, most of the time! They are very grateful). I think it is a nice, thoughtful touch.

However, as I said before and others have said, a handwritten message from child and/or parent is the most thoughtful and touching way to say a personal, "Thank you".

echt - your post regarding contact from MNHQ on another thread needs reporting to MNHQ if you want them to do it. They don't read every post.

One of my Y7s did the crumpled brow, fat lip look today when she realised it was her last lesson with me. That's all I need. I'll cherish that expression all summer.

Think teachers have got a brilliant end of term gift! Thanks David!

Thanks Dave! An end of term gift to cherish...

The staff at my school did a lot of jumping around at lunch time, as the news trickled round.

Barring a different view on the education policy, I'd concur with genuine, heart-felt messages. Failing that, Prosecco

My dsis is a teacher. Her favourite parent always brings her a bottle of red at the end of term. Dsis loves her for it.

I have been brought up to believe that anything hand made means so much more than a high costing gift. The time spent on thinking what to make and what to say/write means so much more. I understand this so much better being a parent and having handmade cards given to me from my little ones.

Last year my daughter gave her teacher a handmade sweet/chocolate ball Christmas tree we both helped to make, and handmade cards for her teacher and teaching assistant with a little photograph of her and finger prints made into a flower. This year at Christmas time, we gave her new teacher and teaching assistant a handmade angel keyring that my daughter painted and added a personal message to it. For the end of this term we both helped to make a crochet apple with her teachers name on it and a handmade keyring. With this little handmade gifts my daugher wrote a personal poem about her teacher and put it into a handmade card with a few selected chocolate treats.

It really depends on how well your child/you like their teacher. My daughter has had great teachers so would not like to say if this would be the same for other not so good teachers.