To not understand end of year gifts for teachers?

[Threecactusplants]

That time is upon us.
My DS’s class WhatsApp ‘admin’ has asked if people want to contribute towards a voucher for the teacher - suggested donation £10 each.
AIBU but the teachers are being paid for this job, they’re not doing it voluntarily.
Okay I understand if the child is leaving/in last year or the teacher is leaving.

To be honest, I haven’t been hugely impressed this year, DS’s teacher has been quite slack and we have had very little communication. He’s been happy going to school which is the main thing but I probably would have got a small card or asked him to make one. It’s only a small class of 21 so if I don’t contribute it’ll be obvious.

I really dont like all this pressure people are under to give gifts. As for "suggesting" an amount you donate... pah!

In primary school my daughter would draw a picture of her favourite memory with the teacher or write a thank you note (I know they would go straight in the bin and that's fine, I hope it made her teachers smile and see the difference they made though). If a teacher had done something special during the school year we'd get them some chocolates etc at the time.

My daughter us in secondary school now and wants to get 3 teachers gifts because they have gone above and beyond. So we are getting them things relevant to them.

I agree OP. It seems to have got out of hand.
Our teacher has explicitly said she doesn't want any gifts for herself, only a specific board game to use in class. We did get her the board game but she was also given five different gifts for herself. I don't understand why parents think an end of year gift is obligatory, even if the teacher doesn't want one!

This, just say something like this and do what you want, I do see why class collecting might put parents on the spot,

Of course it is bribery and corruption.

Say that Jane is a student in a school

If Jane the student, is doing bad in her class,

and then jane's mother comes in and gives a 200 pound spa voucher to the teacher at end of term, jane's teacher can be influenced to give Jane better grades next year.

There is a whole section in our safeguarding policy about it. No teacher is allowed to accept gifts.

I don't think "janes" mum is usual she is a rarity, i mean if it is a private school and "janes" mum is loaded she might splash the cash but normal parents are not throwing spa days about.

I think it's a very interesting study into people's personalities. You can immediately spot the average families, the generous families, the selfish families, the relaxed families, the nitpicking families, the frugal families etc based on how they participate and how much they donate.

Some people decline to take part "on principle" because they refuse to let anyone claw a tenner out of their cold dead hands. Some families donate a small amount monetarily but do so immediately and efficiently with a card. Some families donate based on their income level, so they happily 2x or 3x the suggested amount. As a side note, those parents who organise the gifts get a very unique insight into every single family from the class so make sure you don't elect someone who likes to gossip!

Teachers get so many things they probably can't really keep track of it all but I think anyone would be appreciative if someone else went out of the way to organise something for you.

You must travel in very different circles to me, our teachers get £2 keyrings from Card Value or a big bar of Dairy Milk 😂 and primary school children aren't getting graded or taught by the same teachers.

I think it’s good for children to learn to appreciate and thank the people who help them.
I think it’s a shame that in some schools this has translated into parents clubbing together to give teachers Amazon vouchers.

Does "janes" teacher teach all years why would she be giving her better grades next year, maybe your school knows the measure of the parents and that's why no gifts!

I was in my local town this week shopping and every shop I went into had big displays of absolutely crap gifts for teachers. The worst were card shops. I think it's largely driven by commercial interests that want to screw another tenner out of people who can't really afford it, and it's shitty. I say this as someone who hasn't got kids and never as a child gave a teacher more than a bag of sweets or a bunch of flowers from the garden for the classroom (and this not at the end of term but as and when we had spare).

Last year we got the teacher and TA John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers they were both fantastic with DS, really engaged with parents full of energy and enthusiasm there was a collection and they got £250 each. This year the teacher has been very disorganised doesn't seem to know any of the children, they get everything later than other classes in the same year group usually when a parent reminds her oh are we getting the phonics buster books we paid for etc. She's been open about emigrating at the end of this school year and frankly seems checked out, the TA hasn't spoken a word to any parent since September and several children (not DS) have said she is scary because she shouts all of the time. No one is doing a collection and I'm debating whether it but to even bother with a box of biscuits.
It's not mandatory.

You don’t really believe that you can tell whether I’m selfish or generous from my donation to a class gift?

Because that’s bonkers

If you don’t understand it why were you going to buy a card

Yes I work in a sixth form college.

They have the same teacher for both years.

You do “understand”. You don’t approve, or disagree, which is not the same thing.

That kind of judgement is exactly why I’d never give to whole class collections.

This gifts for teachers thing is a primary school effort surely? I'm not seriously expected to keep it up into secondary am I???

I don't buy gifts, I tend to find alot of it although kind of people is just tat. How many mugs ect they must receive must be ridiculous. It would be nicer if this stopped and the money went into supplies that helps teachers. Or supplies and then a voucher for a teacher to spend as they wish. So much waste going to landfill.

High value gifts would be looked at with concern in our school, only because the teacher would feel awkward, but boxes of chocolates etc are of no interest to anyone.

What would the giving of high grades to any student by an individual teacher actually result in anyway? Are you in the UK? Public exams are the only measure of a child that matters to their life success and over-inflated grades, even if school processes allowed a single teacher to do that, would be more harmful than beneficial.

I do work in a sixth form college that is full of very wealthy students.

The families did used to buy lavish gifts for the teachers.

Spa vouchers, hotel stays were bought for teachers. Mounds of presents were bought. The families were all trying to outdo each other.

. I remember one family even tried to buy a teacher a holiday abroad!

Our headteacher and safeguarding lead, rightfully in my opinion, introduced a no gift policy.

It has been much calmer at end of term.

Haha. Sorry to tell you but it definitely can still happen after primary.

Well those are basically adults if parents are likely to throw around spa days for an extra mark then that is different. i think we are talking about primary school here .

My kids primary school had a no gifts policy because they’re in a very mixed catchment and didn’t want any parent feeling pressure to give gifts they couldn’t afford.

The title of the thread is

"To not understand end of year gifts for teachers".

It didn't specify primary school.

This.
my child’s class have literally raised hundreds of pounds and the effort that has gone in is similar to wedding planning it’s so ridiculous.