Teacher gifts - ungrateful shit!

[Hufflemuff]

More of a rant than a question to be fair!

I was listening to Heart radio this morning and they had a teacher on called "Mc Grammer" (a rapping teacher - cringe) who was discussing teacher gifts and "what not to buy"...

He said one of the worse gifts he ever got from a student was a Rock - because the pupil said "he rocked" (aww) and some Doritos because that was the pupils favourite crisps (bless). He also said mugs were mostly an unwanted present "there's only so many cups of tea you can drink" apparently.

He said in the past he's gotten an Arsenal shirt, Nando's gift sets and gift cards... He said you should get to know the teacher to find out what they like and buy them something personal to them.

AIBU to be totally pissed off by this mans arrogance. It was totally tone deaf during the middle of a cost of living crisis to suggest parents buy gift cards (the minimum of which is usually £10) and other expensive presents in order for it to be considered a worthwhile gift. The fact he poo-pooed that boys rock as "one of the worse" gifts, which admittedly you wouldn't put on your mantel piece but the sentiment was there. He didn't consider that the boys parents might not have the money to buy a 'real' gift but he still wanted to give him something.

Ah!!! I was so very cross. It was the expectation to get something as a certainty and even then, he might not have been satisfied with it.

I have teachers in the family and they are always happy to get anything at all, no matter what it is. I think he was a really bad representation of all those caring teachers and Heart did the profession a real disservice by having him on.

Rant over! Gah!

Grammer instead of Hammer maybe? Or OP made a spelling mistake as doubt the actually spelled it out on the radio

I’d never say “don’t get me a gift” to anyone just because (and this may just be me) they may not even have thought of getting me a gift and then I’m putting the idea in their head if that makes sense...?

Same. The only gifts I was allowed to accept were ones I could use in my job like pens.
I don’t know why it’s allowed. I wasn’t even allowed to accept chocolates or wine - they had to go to the mayors raffle.

I know someone who teaches part time at a primate school and will get given gifts worth hundreds of pounds. She declares them on her tax form.

@carduelis agreed. 'Don't get me a gift' kind of presumes the person might be thinking of getting one. And they might not be.

They must get so much “best teacher” crap though! Our class have always gone down the route of contributing no more than a fiver into a collection and getting a gift card as a collective. So around £80-100. Much better imo

I always used to make fairy cakes or biscuits with my sons. The kids had fun and it wasn't too expensive x

@unicornhair if I'd not been PAYE as a teacher, I could have claimed on all my personal spending on classroom resources. The cash value of my teacher presents would pale into insignificance in comparison.

No individual gifts here, we do read but also bung a tenner via an app for a voucher

I think that’s easy and surely people like a voucher for a decent amount

When DS was in reception he insisted on buying his teacher several tubes of glitter, wrapped them himself and wrote (almost illegibly) in the card "gliteer becus u make scooool alll sparkeely luf minilistsandbudgets" (I did give her an M & S voucher too )

She wrote DS the loveliest note which I still have thanking him and even decorated it with a little bit of glitter. She was a very kind woman, extremely experienced and all her pupils seemed to worship her. I reckon she's have been delighted with a rock

Why did you do that? And why does it matter that they were East European?

@listsandbudgets that's adorable and would have made me cry. Bet she loved that gift so much!

I want to know too? what was that all about?

Booze.. every time!

I didn't hear it so don't know the context however going by what you've said, it is rude. He could have gently said that these are good gift ideas, he didn't need to rubbish gifts that children had given him in the past.

Personally, my little one is at nursery but I give her nursery teachers a thank you card with a starbucks voucher. Most people will use that, even if they aren't big coffee drinkers there is food etc, and it's not their 100th mug.

It's not the norm in most jobs to get gifts from your 'service users' so I don't know why teachers are complaining really. I understand the 'too much tat' argument for generic gift-giving generally, but if that's the objection they should be saying 'no gifts, please' (or handmade gifts/charity donations) not specifying expensive things like football shirts.

Yes! I love a hand written card or letter, better than any gift.

Although I used to put Hyacinth bulbs into jolly Christmas mugs when my kids were small, have them just ready to flower. Got the mugs from charity shops the previous January.
I was well organised in those days..

That is the loveliest present I have ever heard of!!

I'm in teaching and I would appreciate the rock and doritos as they're from the child and from the heart. Really sweet.

I was at school in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving for university in 1981, so probably before your grandfather retired and before teacher gifts came in.

Oh god I’d hate that! Firstly, most LAs don’t allow us to accept anything worth anywhere near that amount so it adds extra paper work! Also, it’s never the whole class that contribute, it’s the ‘cool mummy’ WhatsApp group or similar and it makes other parents feel left out and their kids feel crappy that they didn’t get to play a part in the teachers gift and could maybe only afford a rock.

Consumables are deffo the best surely? wine, chocolate, biscuits that kind of thing?

I agree, the point of the declaration is to protect the employee from allegations of fraud and favourable treatment of the gift buyer......tbh, pretty standard employment terms 🤷‍♀️ it's a shame parents feel the need to engage in this practice.

I think the rock because 'you rock' thing is absolutely adorable to be fair!

One of the loveliest presents I ever received from a child in my class was a little book which she'd made and on each page she had written a fact about me, with an accompanying drawing, e.g. "Mrs Lettuce loves cats" etc
Another year a little boy bought me a cactus and he said "I remember when we were learning about plants, you said you loved cactuses!" I nearly cried, especially as that topic was one of the first things we had covered and he had remembered! I did get lots of Best Teacher things, but I used the pens and put the plaques etc in the classroom. And all Best Teacher mugs went in the staffroom. If a child had given me a rock, I'd have been an emotional wreck!