To feel sorry for all the teachers who are about to be inundated with shite gifts

[Butterflyfluff]

My Facebook feed is full of utterly shit teacher gifts - mugs, glasses, baubles, sweet jars all with ‘Greatest Teacher’ on them.

Surely the vast majority of these end up in the bin - no one needs up to 30 odd of these every year?

What’s wrong with clubbing together for vouchers that would actually get used?

I always made a charity donation. Oxfam used to do a school bag voucher and I gave one on behalf of each teacher. And a letter. I think Mary's Meals do gift cards.

In our class, the suggested donation is £10. This happens at Christmas and the end of year! I really resent it as I think it’s too much. And I am also a teacher before anyone pounces on me saying teachers deserve it - I think it’s OTT!

@oakleaffy apologies then! Sarcasm hard to read on here!

Not ours, we all contribute what we can afford and get a gift card. Last year teacher had £200- is that a shit gift? Nope.

4 kids in primary and each class requesting a tenner each per collection,😬 I've once again declined, and the kids are making homemade cards.

My daughter is going to miss her teacher so much that she's asked to buy a few little bits, but it's personal to the teacher what my daughter has noticed over the year, ie, her favourite biscuits that are tucked away in her drawer 🤣

We've also bought potted plants in years before and one teacher has actually showed me a photo of the plant we bought growing beautifully in her garden.

Is this really true? They are gifts, not from an employer, why would they be taxable?

That’s the thing. If my kids school were to say ‘we’ve run out, here’s an Amazon wish list’ I’d just buy half the contents for next day delivery.

That would be amazing. However in my experience, for every parent / carer who would be willing to help, there would be 10 others who would complain about schools asking for more money.

How tragic.

Very middle class area here. Vouchers will easily get to £200. School events raise thousands.

I always gratefully received gifts off children. It’s the thought and the effort that counts. But honestly, a nice note in a card made my day, far better than any gift.

Why are vouchers different to other gifts which have monetary value?

I loved my biology teacher...He's a friend now, 30 yrs on.

My classroom is stocked with toys that my children have grown out of and books I have bought.

In addition, this year I have bought all of the equipment needed for our D and T topics, two large boxes of pritt sticks, pencils, white board pens and cleaning products.

I've also purchased a bracket to fix my classroom cupboard and my own book box.

This is pretty standard as there's no money and I don't want the children to miss out.

Yep agreed - I think vouchers are only taxable if they are provided by an employer eg an incentive for highest sales

I'm not really bothered what you think. You do realise your view is just an opinion, dont you? Which means, it's no more "right" than anyone else's.

I've got individual gifts rather than class vouchers because I won't be dictated to by the the same few mums who seem to think they run the show in our class. I also wanted gifts to come from my kids and not a generic, thoughtless voucher.

My kids will be writing lovely cards to put with their gifts and if they end up in charity shops, so be it.

A card made by the child or an email saying thank you from a parent is lovely. I’ve had the most gorgeous messages over the last 20 years and those are the things I remember and appreciate the most.

If you really want to give us a gift - teach your child manners, to be a nice person and for you as a parent to not slag us off on WhatsApp.

Exactly. They're only taxable if they are provided as a reward for performance or over £50.
Otherwise is no different to you giving your best friend £100 as a birthday present

I am a teacher. I never get any gifts. Maybe a card. All I want is a child who turns up with a pen, does their work and is polite and kind. I'd rather a verbal thank you any day.
I wouldn't like a family to feel obliged to buy a gift through peer pressure etc. I am just doing my job.

That should say, provided by an employer!

As a teacher simply a thank
you and not getting a table pushed at me or a F off is nice :)

That is tragic that schools are so under funded..I remember the delights of the stationary cupboard where pristine new exercise books lurked, and boxes of pencils and glue- Getting a new exercise book was such a delight!

Back then of course it was black boards and chalk- White boards with the wipe clean pens are probably far more expensive, and if the wrong pens are used, the white board is marked permanently.

😂😂😂😂

good one.

I work in financial services, where bribery and corruption legislation is relevant. How would giving a teacher a mug or a £5 gift voucher at Christmas fall into the scope of said legislation?

Also, what’s this got to do with tax?

I write a nice thank you card for each of my children’s teachers and give the office a big box of fancy biscuits (and GF alternative) for the staff room a week or two before the end of term. Seems to work ok, don’t think anyone needs to feel too sorry for the teachers!

I think the problem with class collections and a voucher is that the child is not in any way involved. The relationship is between the child and the teacher rather than the parents and the teacher.

When my son was at primary school I always thought it was important that he was involved in the process of buying a gift and writing a card - so that as well it being a thank you to the teacher, he could also learn how to show appreciation. (We usually went down the chocolate route).

We used to put a message on the school app asking for donations to the local food bank and we all had collection boxes in our offices and classrooms. We’d post the most recent ‘wish list’ from their social media. We did this after self nominated class reps were asking parents for money at summer and Christmas which didn’t feel right to any of us. We were all mortified to be handed between £250 - £300 in various vouchers one Christmas and decided not to keep them but to use them into raffle prizes for the Spring Fayre. We let parents know how grateful we were but we couldn’t accept those vouchers, that put an end to the vouchers nonsense. So many parents couldn’t afford to put into collections and there was quite a lot of pressure put on to parents to contribute which really wasn’t nice.

I have a tree that I put up at Christmas and still have all the little handmade bits and bobs that I received from children, they still go on my special tree all these years later. As for the mugs, everyone left them in the staff room and the janitor took them to the charity shop at the start of each session, we used to leave a lot of cakes and sweets in the staffroom too at the end of summer term as well as plants. There was normally a table full of wine which was regifted as raffle prizes at fayres through the year. Any flowers I normally gifted to my MIL as we were always away the first 3 weeks of term.

Edited to add I still have every card and letters given to me.