To spend less than a quid on teachers presents?!

[CheeseAndBeans]

Help! My DD is in reception so am new to this. Obviously with Christmas coming up people are starting to talk about what they are buying for the teacher and TA for Christmas. I have heard people saying they have got wine, vouchers, personalised gifts, even a bloody hamper!

All seems very competitive to me. We are skint at the moment with the lead up to Christmas and I thought I was done with the present buying. Totally forgot about teacher gifts!

WIBU to give them both chocolate reindeers? They are 79p in Aldi. They look nice, cheap versions of the lindt ones. Is that really bad?
Will put them in little gift bags I already have and get DD to make them both a nice card.

OP I would have also been very happy with a chocolate reindeer!

Chocolate reindeer sounds great I might buy the same myself! In our school parents have arranged a teachers collection and suggested £15 per person contribution!! I think that is a bit much!

Your gift idea sounds lovely OP.

But not all gifts are meant to be competitive, I have given a teacher a bottle of champagne. Because the teacher had worked so hard to support DS and had made a huge difference to how they felt about school and themselves. I wanted to give a gift to reflect my gratitude to them. I didn't give it in front of others and it was nothing to do with others.

it's more for DD. She will be upset if she sees all her friends giving them something but she doesn't.

Here's the real issue, it's not the teacher at all. This is the start of peer pressure, need for DC to be (seen to be) the same or better than others. To be resisted at all costs or you will have another decade of pressure on you to buy things that you can't really afford and resent paying for.

Chocs are fine...anyway gifts should be wrapped so others can't see what they are. Perhaps DC doesn't even need to know what the gift is.

My dd is in year one and we didn’t buy any Christmas presents for her reception teachers or her teacher this year.

We did buy a gift for the end of year but it cost £5 per teacher. (She had 4 in reception)

I bought them some wildflower seeds in a glass bottle in a hessian bag with the message “thank you for helping me grow”

Oh god I just remembered when I was working in a children’s nursery, a little bit bought in wooden spoons decorated to look like us (the adults)

They were amazing and we were all chuffed

Buy what you can afford, if anything at all. The Lidl chocolate sounds fine.

Our parent class reps asked us all to pay a £5 for a joint pressie for teacher and TA.
I did pay it but I thought it a bit cheeky. DD only been in the nursery since end of October. What if people don't have £5 to give away for that. While I did it, I'm not a fan.

On top of the £5 some parents are buying extra gifts too. I'm not.

I'm a primary teacher and would hate to think that anyone felt pressure to buy me anything. Of course, I am always grateful and appreciative of a gift, but the things we really treasure are homemade cards/gifts that children have made for us. I think knowing that a child considers it important to spend time and energy thinking of me and making me something is the best gift.
One year, a little girl gave me one of her own, used nail varnishes as a gift, wrapped in a piece of tissue, because she was desperate to give me something to show she cared. I will never, NEVER throw it away. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken it but her eager little face when she presented me with it made that seem terribly cruel!
A chocolate reindeer is a lovely gift!

My DS is autistic and over the years I have had cause to be grateful to so many amazing teachers. We are doing quite well this year and will buy the class teacher and TA (it’s a special school) a Costa or Starbucks coffee card so that they can treat themselves to a cuppa and some cake. We don’t normally do this ...we do usually wrote a letter to the HT and say thank you for the great support and input DS gets from them all there.

Sounds lovely OP. Please don't stress about it.

A couple of years ago we got oranges and stuck cloves in them in star and tree shapes and made a home made card. They smelt lovely

Hi, OP. Teacher here. The best gift you can give your Dd's teacher and TA is to email the head saying how great they are and how grateful you are for their hard work.

A nice message in a Christmas card from you and DD would also mean the world to me.

Aldi chocolate is yummy so if you want to give a physical gift then an Aldi chocolate reindeer will be gratefully received. Ignore the show off parents; teachers really, really don't go into this job for the money/material perks.

I’m a teacher- i promise this is totally fine!!
There really is no need for a parent to feel obligated to spend lots of money

I’ve never actually seen myself one of these mythical schools where parents receive huge sums of cash from a class collection or hampers

I remember one year a child gave me a pack of custard creams and the look of happiness and pleasure on their face was just lovely- they were so just happy to give their teacher a present so of course I pretended they were my favourite biscuit in the world and I would really enjoy them (Which I did!)

I would actually love (really love!!) a parent to email the head and tell them if they are happy with how their child is doing at school and they are happy with me.
In this current climate of heavy scrutiny and monitoring, i would love some independent positive feedback to my boss!

Another teacher here. As others have said, we really don’t expect presents.

What you’re doing sounds lovely.

TBH, if a child gives me an expensive gift, all it does is make me feel awkward! A little boy brought in a plate of brownies he’d make this week - I admit I every single one at break time! Delicious!

Another gave me an amazon gift card and when I saw how much was on it, honestly I felt really awkward.

It really is the homemade gifts that are special.