Teachers presents - class gift

[angsanana]

I'm organising the year 5 Xmas present for staff this year. 2 teachers, 1 LSA, 1, one-to-one. When I've done this in the past the pot is usually 250-400 (our school tend not to ask a set amount there is a real mix of affluence). I've reminded a couple of times and Im at £115 between around 10 families.

WIBU to buy the gifts and put "love from Tom, bob, Kirsty etc" rather than "love from year 5"? In the past I've put as a class gift but the majority have contributed.

What's the consensus here?

When did life become all about 'bigger and better'. Christmas eve boxes, elf on the shelf, 1st Dec boxes, advent calendars costing over £50, hen and stag dos costing people hundreds, baby showers, teachers getting £300 or more at Christmas and end of year.
The list goes on.

We've all gone crazy!

I think you should wait closer to the time. If it's a few days before school breaks up for Christmas and only 1/3 of the class has contributed then I'd just get those children to sign their names. If it's just a couple of parents who haven't paid up then sign it from the class. Usually teacher presents are just for the end of the year, not Christmas.

Sorry OP I unhelpfully didn't say earlier, if I didn't contribute I wouldn't expect my child to be on the card .

I could always send a separate card from my child

It's probably kind to put from all the kids but not fair.

Our class does this every year at Christmas. They ask for £5 per teacher per child. With 3 teachers in the class that's £15. The Christmas before last I couldn't even afford to buy my child new shoes nevermind find £15 for a Christmas gift to teachers. They always put just the child names who contributed. The mum who organises it is quite well off so maybe it doesn't occur to her that some just can't do it.you never no people's circumstances.

When someone organises this for our class, some parents say, I’ll do my own thing thanks and some contribute to a class gift. The collector of the cash usually buy the gifts and a big card & the kids sign it ( the ones that have joined in the group gift ) we’ve never done from the whole class.
some people like the hassle free approach of giving cash to someone else to sort 🙋‍♀️
and some do their own thing, or nothing at all.

Payday isn’t for another few days so I’d give until the first week of December send a message saying all donations must be in by - date then go from there.

Retired secondary teacher here.

I just don't understand why you do it. It wasn't a thing back when I was at primary school and wasn't a thing all through my secondary teaching career.

I don't think it should be. Send a card of some kind in with best wishes, etc - but your child's teacher doesn't need gifts from you and putting pressure on other parents by co-ordinating a joint gift is dreadful, in my opinion.

That is awful - there could be many parents with more than one child at the school.

Schools should put a stop to it. Cards are more than enough and more meaningful. Most teachers I know give any presents to the charity shop or foodbank.

They always use the money to get vouchers. So each teacher gets over £100 in vouchers. I think it's excessive for Christmas.

honestly setting up a collection pot online (google collection pot) has been the best! it allows each parent to contribute as they wish, the child can upload video or pics with thank you message, the teacher sees how much each parent contributed and who they are.

Why would the teacher need to see who and how much was given?!

Money is tight right now for a lot of families. Signing from all the children is best. There may be some children who want to contribute but their parents can't.

Blimey, no wonder everyone's skint.

And the benefits of a teacher knowing who donated what are?

I wouldn't expect my child's name to be on the card or present if I didn't contribute. Dd is now in y11 buy when she was at primary she used to make a card and perhaps a few homemade chocolates. The teacher's do get paid to do their job.

All I can say in response to this is I'm really glad this isn't a thing where I live (not UK). Class whatsapp group? Sounds like a nightmare to be honest. It must be a hotbed of drama, and for things like this liable to create division and bad feeling. Everybody has different opinions on what they want to do, but some may feel pressured into giving cash towards the gift when they don't want to, or don't have it to spare.

What I did a couple of years ago was organised a class gift but actually filled it with stuff for the classroom like whiteboard pens, colouring crayons and pencils etc. This way it was a gift for the teachers by them being able to benefit from extra resources. Grabbed some stuff for the Amazon wish list etc. There was some money left over for chocolates and a bottle of plonk for each teacher and LSA but didn’t seem so commercial and competitive. The teachers was overjoyed and very emotional at drop off. Card was signed by whole class even though lots of people didn’t contribute I assumed the kids would have wanted to if they could.

Last year I couldn’t afford to contribute for my daughters class gift due to the deadline the parent set and not getting paid until afterwards. Her name got left off the class Christmas card. This pissed me off because I regularly contribute to the school lottery etc and all the usual crap but the timings didn’t work out for this one. It was only 5 out of 30 children’s names who got left off and it was put in the WhatsApp group who had contributed. I left the group and refuse to engage with many of the parents in that year now.

We never put love from a whole year group - just the people who contribute. Some like to give individual gifts - others none - I see no reason why it should be from year group if people are not contributing. Even £2 is a contribution.

Definitely.
The things I cherished most were hand-made cards or things that the children had made. I had a flowerpot decorated a ribbon and baubles that I used every year at Christmas (until my cat broke it!)

We didn’t have class collections or WhatsApp groups at DT’s school but have seen the problems from both where I have been a governor. Thankfully the head stopped both after a year of no end of problems surrounding the different WhatsApp groups and every time there was a collection

I agree with waiting a little longer. I haven’t been asked yet for DD. Wasn’t this time last year either. Another reminder this weekend.

Totally agree with hating the collection. The whole purpose of gifting is making it personal. I would love DD to make something or have a small budget and decide herself what she wanted to buy. At the start of the year she wanted to give the teacher a paper rose because if she did that “then the teacher would remember my name”. They say the funniest things and would be nice for them to express their creativity. Everything is so computerised and transactional now.

Do you know what you're getting? I refuse to put into the class gifts as it's always complete tat.

Personally would return the money given to the 10 families and let them know only a small % of families wanted to be involved and it would be best to sort things out solo.

Never did class presents, my mum was a teacher and never had them either it was always individual a nice card and a pack of biscuits done.

I think we have to give teachers some credit - I can’t ever imagine a teacher (even ones I am not keen on) treating a child differently because their parent didn’t buy a Christmas present or put in for one. I doubt very much teachers show kids their Christmas cards with the lists of names who contributed - just as I doubt they go around thanking the kids who contributed infront of other kids who didn’t.
I just find it weird to say a present is from the whole class when it’s not. Sometimes I have deliberately not contributed to teachers presents who have been horrible to my child. I would not want my child’s name on their card in these instances because some well meaning person thinks I haven’t contributed due to lack of funds.

OMG this is everything thats wrong with this collection bullshit.

Teachers don't need Xmas gifts, if someone wants to give one they should bother their own ass to do it but NO ONE should be harassed into stuff they don't want to or can't do and then shamed for it.