Gift ideas for a headteacher please and how to “give back” to a wonderful school

[Zaeem5]

Hi - just wondering what to do here as I find it’s always trickier to think of gifts for men. My third child is leaving her prep school this week and the head there has bern a key influence in all our kids lives, so we want to thank him in some way. Any ideas for a gift? He’s about 50. Lots of people would get champagne, etc but not sure I he drinks tbh. Also, we can’t afford to do a grand gesture, eg fund a bursary place, but the school is amazing and we’d like to maybe give back something there too? Has anyone else ever done anything along these lines and what did you do please, or would this BU? Many thanks!

Play equipment?

What is your budget? Maybe offer a small donation for him to spend on whatever he thinks will make the biggest difference to pupils.

Could you sponsor a prize/cup/shield in whatever subject your DC's most liked?
That's what we are doing

Um, well, if you’re thinking along the lines of a bursary place it’s not quite the same but we have done books for the school library and a huge box of pencils, paper, scissors, glue sticks, craft supplies for the classroom.

Going a bit more expensive- sports equipment? A resource for the classroom?

Thankyou. Yes I was thinking maybe some kind of play equipment.

I guess we could just make a donation, yes, but it’s a funny one because the school doesn’t exactly seem lacking in money given the fees , so we just feel like we’d like to give a tangible thing rather than more money!

Is anyone on here a head and what is the best gift you’ve had please? Or anyone’s DH?

Today - yes, I was thinking, they don’t do a science prize / cup for some reason. How do you sponsor a cup though? Do you just buy the cup or is there more to it?

Well we are buying a shield. We'll set up a small fund for it to be engraved each year and for the student who wins it to be given a monetary gift or book. That is what the school asked us to do, I don't know if that's normal though

Buy the cup which will be presented every year and returned for next prize giving. Leave funds for an appropriate book to be given to the winner for the next so many years.

Thanks - I’ll definitely consider that.

Could you commission a portrait of the head to be displayed in the school? Something that could be kept to remember them buy?

DD is at a prep school and there’s all sorts of artefacts from past heads going back 100 years.

*by FGS

You also need a specific name for the prize and a specific focus eg highest achiever, most improved ext.

Mum at our school did the cup/shield thing.

It’s way too cringy! Rewarding one child is bad form.

Why not buy a set of games for wet play? Dobble, droughts, frustration, so lots of kids can enjoy them?

Another way of 'giving back' is to help a less fortunate child enjoy the same advantages the school has given your child. Not a bursary ...obviously very expensive ...maybe buying the uniform of a bursary child? No need for anyone to know who has done this or for whom. Or maybe a years music lessons in a particular discipline? I have taught in an independent and there is both very privileged pupils and those whose parents really struggle and whose child is a real credit to the school. I think it is lovely of you to think of showing your appreciation in any way whatsoever.

there are ...not there is

A school near me recently had a bench given by some parents. It's called the friendship bench or talking corner or something like that. The children were told they can go there if they just want to chat, and if they see someone alone there they should go over and see if they're ok. I think that's a lovely idea.

Thankyou for the ideas. They do give various cups out at the end if Year 6 - eg music, drama, singing, outstanding progress, academic, English, ICT, maths, art, citizenship and various sport ones, but no science cup or French, so that could be something? But they just give the cups - no monetary prizes.
There are other competitions in the year when they do give books as prizes, so maybe a small fund for that?
The friendship bench would be brilliant but they already have that!
There is a bursary fund but it’s impossible to know how many benefit from that. Maybe that wouid be the best way to give back though - even if we covered uniforms as a pp kindly suggested because the uniform is extortionate by any standards as it is.

Thankyou!

if there's a bursary fund it would be nice to add to the pot?

What about sponsoring a child or even a school in Africa? Or you could fund a friendship bench for a school in your area that doesn't have one.

Schools can get membership to the National Trust, it's just over £100 (approx) for the year. The entire school can visit unlimited properties / places for this one off cost. Maybe buy this?
Or pay for all of one year group to have First Aid training from St John's Ambulance, or cycling proficiency or similar?
It would be good to benefit the whole rather than one or two.
How much were you thinking of spending?

Thankyou New - great ideas. I don’t really have a fixed budget in mind, to be honest, its more deciding In a useful thing we could do and then seeing if we could commit. We’d love to sponsor a child on an ongoing basis, but it’s basically a fourth school fee and with three already, plus uni coming up for the elder one, I don’t think we can stretch that far. But great ideas here that I wouldn’t have thought of so Thankyou so much.

I’d offer to sponsor a cup, I wouldn’t just buy one. Imagine if all the parents did that, it would be like the Lestranges’ vault.

There was a cup given to DS’s school by the family of a teacher there who had died. It was the ‘Joy to Teach’ cup- I always wanted that to be the one that DS was awarded.

I suspect he didn’t bring his teachers quite as much joy as I’d hoped though...