How much is the contribution per family for teachers' end of year gifts at your school?

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I haven't really thought about this before in any depth. Sometimes the organiser has said £5, this year it was £10. The gifts are usually vouchers for John Lewis plus extra items like candles, beauty items, chocolates. This year £340 was collected for dividing between 2 teachers and 3 TAs on a pro rata type basis. Some families do their own thing and give money to the collection. There's usually a collection at Christmas too. Does every school do these collections twice a year? It's voluntary but then there's a list of those who have donated so anyone who can't afford it or doesn't want to join in is highlighted by their absence.

Our school does this, I hate it but have to contribute as they publicise who donates and who doesn’t.
£10 every Christmas and end of year per child.

I wouldn’t mind so much if they just gave the money to the teachers / ta, but the person organising loves personalised tat and always includes things with the kids names on. This year it was a wall hanging - like anyone is going to put that on their wall!?!?
and they buy a massive box of cheap chocolate and flowers.

just give the bloody money!

School used to put in the newsletter that gifts were not expected but the big organisers still do it. It all stops when they go to secondary school though.

I've just bought some special biscuits this time. There's two teachers and an assistant that I have to buy for, it all get a bit too much.

This happens at all the primary schools I’ve ever been involved with as staff or a parent.

I've never given to class collections. And why twice a year? Surely once is more than enough if you are that way inclined.

I have the greatest respect for teachers but do not see the need to buy them gifts twice a year.

Our parents group does a teachers favorite things survey. It includes which common stores they like to shop at and their favorite snacks and non-alcoholic drinks. It’s a nice way for a kid to be able to bring in something small like a candy bar or a bag of crisps or for a family to give a voucher to a local store. It’s always a store that stocks things the teacher might buy for the classroom, but also stocks just regular items the teacher might want personally or even groceries. That grey area is nice because you can give a bit more money if you have the means without it seeming wrong because it could just as easily be a classroom donation.

To publish a list of who has and hasn't donated is utterly shit and whoever does this should be ashamed of themselves, wankerage of the highest order!

When my ds was in reception a group of the mums organised a collection at the end of term and the suggested donation was £10. I think they ended up with about £700 between 3 teachers and 2 TAs. Now he's just finished year 3 and everyone did their own thing. Some kids were bringing in bouquets of flowers at £45 a piece. It's just got a bit silly really. My kids wrote a card and I emailed the head, I don't know if the teachers drink booze, like chocolates, light smelly candles etc so I didn't go for the usual stuff and, well, I'm not spending £90 on flowers either so it seemed the best idea!

I organised my son's class one.

I said to contribute whatever they felt comfortable with and all children will be included regardless unless someone explicitly asked for their child to not be named. We had a range of £5-£30 donations. A couple of families didn't contribute but were still included.

We raised £340 between 4.

£10 at Christmas and the same at the end of the summer. I think it’s great. Nice and easy. However it is not a name and shame. Simply, if you would like to contribute do so by x date. No one makes a big deal out of it.

If there is not a class collection I would buy an individual gift - usually biscuits/chocolates.

Pity the secondary school teachers who get sod all

Prep school and we also do £10 for Xmas and same at end of year. Total amount is split between teacher, TA and hamper for all in staff room as all subjects taught by specialist teachers.

Tbh I find it much easier here than her nursery where parents were in much lower incomes (lots of fully funded places) but the contribution amounts were ever increasing, organising mum asked for £30 each at end of term, my jaw literally hit the floor.

We never did this at ds' school until the very last year when someone managed to get notes put into the book bags so everyone contributed £5 for that teacher and the teaching assistant. 30 x £5 adds up to a nice amount. Not sure if they got something from everyone but I'd hope that nobody would ever feel like they had to contribute more than £2-5. £10 is ridiculous - that's £300! Even divided between a teacher and a TA, that's a huge amount for one gift.

Otherwise I didn't bother, we didn't have whatsapp groups or similar to organise things. It is probably better though, so that teachers don't get 30 mugs saying "best teacher" every year.

I'm a teacher and in my first few years I got a gift card from the class. I think it usually worked out to be around £5 per child. As lovely and generous as it was, I always felt incredibly guilty so I now message all the parents at Christmas and summer reminding them I do get paid to work and ask them not to get me presents but they really want to do something, they can donate something to the food bank.

@MardyBumm that's a great idea! I'd much rather do that.

When my son left his absolutely brilliant fantastic secondary school myself and another Mother had a massive hamper made up from our local farm shop inc coffee,tea ,fresh soft drinks,savouries ,biscuits ,local wine etc.
We wanted it to go into the communal staff room so that staff from all areas would get to have a munch on something from the hamper !!

Our school does not do this luckily. I have 4 kids... £40 extra at Christmas and just before the holidays would not be great for me. I don't give gifts either.

Our collections never have a set amount just a “whatever you want to donate”. I did the class Christmas collection last year, I’d say about 2/3rds of parents gave something, mostly £5 or £10 but one parent did give £50 😱

I’ve never known parents do this. None of the schools I worked at did and my kids schools don’t. Even £10 each is too much, £20 is completely excessive and to then keep a list and highlight those who don’t contribute is incredibly rude and shaming for families who don’t have that kind of money spare.

Never contributed to a collection here. Some parents club together but it's informal and lots don't.

Never understood how they're allowed such big donations/ vouchers. When I worked in the public sector we weren't allowed to accept anything worth more than £5 and even then we had to declare it and share with colleagues

Old school didn't.
New school does £10.
I prefer a collection. You can't get much for 2 cards/gift for under £10 anyway.

In all the schools I've ever worked in, I've never seen or experienced this. I saw the year out with a class this year and, although I didn't ask for anything, I got several boxes of chocolates, some candles, a cup and some stationery. I'm glad of that because it would feel somehow wrong to accept a gift of £50.

My dc's school didn't have an organised group gift for their teachers either.

I mean, 75% of the kids at our school are entitled to free school meals so I think the teachers would actually rather that money was speny on something the kids needed.

Oh blimey. With us it’s whatever people want to / feel able to give.

And the present is sign from “X class”, not just the names of the children whose parents donated. Then we do e cards for everyone to sign.

Im one of the reps and I couldn’t even tell you who did/ didn’t donate or the amounts. We get a good chunk of money for the teachers this way too.

Of course people are free to buy their own gifts as well or instead or do nothing at all. No one cares.

(We are in London and not an affluent area if anyone is interested - although some people are quite well off)

We do a collection at Christmas and end of term. Amount is discretionary but probably averages at about £10 (I did the collection for this end of term - some people gave more, some less).
The gifts and card are from the whole class though - I definitely wasn’t checking who had contributed or not.