Xmas present to help my Dd be one of the teachers favourites

[Justlookatthatrain]

😂Joking-sort of

But seriously, what do you buy your child’s teacher at Christmas?
I worked in a school and there were 100% the mums/kids who bought the flashiest presents-good perfume, champagne, huge bouquets and it did have an effect and everyone knew who those mums were
I’m sure teachers will deny this 😅
A good, thoughtful present does make a difference

Aibu?

At certain points with my dd the best gift I could have given her teacher was straightjacket for dd. Also a taser

Not sure what your point is?

I work in an inner city area of significant deprivation -gift buying for teachers is very far down our parents' list of priorities, I imagine. And rightly so.

However, what always makes me think very fondly of a child -and by extension, their parents- is anything homemade. A card, a bookmark, something baked or cooked (I know this isn't up every teacher's street), a drawing -anything! It touches me so much that a child, who could be at home watching TV or out on their bike or whatever, would choose to spend their precious time out of school making something special for me. Last week, a pupil made me a little box out of a cereal packet, decorated it, and put a selection of snacks in it. She'd clearly gone through the family's cupboards to do so: one chocolate, a little wrap of raisins and a small slice of cake, all in individually decorated wrappers, and a little card saying "Enjoy!"

Poor teachers on our measly salary. What we really need is afternoon tea at Fortnums.

As a teacher my favourite thing to receive is a card with a personal thank you message inside (the more detailed and uniquely referring to me the better).
My second favourite is a voucher.
However, we have to declare to the school any gift of value above £15 (in case of favouritism allegations) and are not allowed to accept any gifts of value above £50. So please don't spend too much!
I don't like to receive candles, perfume, toiletries, ornaments, pens or clothing etc.

Presents are not necessary. They make no difference at all.

My class are asking me my mum says what do I want for Christmas and I say peace and quiet and two weeks away from you! And yes, they know I'm joking....!
I've loved some presents I've had- some have been very generous and some have been homemade cards from the children. I still have the card that one child wrote for me saying everyone needs a Mr OneFunBrickNewt in their life!
But they make 100% no difference to how the child is treated in class- I would hate for any parent to stress about this at all.

Sorry, am I wrong in thinking that teachers are not paid terribly well for the hours they do?

Which is why I try to buy gifts that they wouldn’t normally waste their money on. Turns out the teacher in question loved the afternoon tea with her mum.

This isn't meant to sound bad but I earn £55k and I'm home most days by between 4 and 5pm and I don't really work weekends.
It was hell at the start, but now I know what I'm doing it's much easier.

It's the patronising tone I object to. If I had been paid more I wouldn't have been spending my extra salary on tea at Fortnums. A nice card or some flowers for a gift was fine but nothing at all was required.

How was I patronising?

Deeply sorry for offending you 🙄

That’s great, but I don’t think my son’s teacher is anywhere close to that. She is quite young still. I’d guess late 20’s. My DS was having mental health issues and she was checking in via email in the evenings and weekends. She really was going above and beyond to help him and get him back in school.

Her point was to be nasty.

Five years or so of teaching in England ie not Inner/Outer London/Fringe is around £40k.
They sound like a great teacher, and any gift will be appreciated!

We sent several emails to my son’s different year 7 teachers and copied in HOD and also asked at my main reception email to go to the relevant member of SLT.

For example French teacher. My son has an EHCP and on going SALT and in a main stream school having attended a special SALT school at primary. He was adamant that French was rubbish and didn’t want to even attempt it before he started and we discussed with the SENCO not allowing this and encouraging a positive can do mind set etc instead.
We have found him wanting to ‘act out the numbers’ eg ‘cat’ for 4 and enjoying the quizzes and even requesting evening of trying to speak in French and uno in French etc

We gave a reward of Duolingo for him (he thinks he is playing and we are trying to organise a trip to France for him.

we put all of the above in an email to his French teacher to thank him for all he had done with our son and wishing him a restful half term.

We got a lovely email back to say how it was the last email he had received before logging off for half term and the pleasure it made him feel and that he was appreciated for his job and he was really touched by it and going into half term really buoyed that his job meant something to someone.

I never did. My child was largely ignored at school as she was neither top of class or bottom so fitted into the invisible middle / average set. so I used to buy a gift for the lollipop lady instead 🤣

Please no vouchers for a ludicrous amount.
I get these every year and find it so embarrassing to accept them. It’s my job, I love it, I don’t want all that money, I’d much prefer parents buy their children books instead.
Just a card is lovely.
My vouchers are given to my neighbour as she appreciates them and spoils her disabled daughter with them.

My daughter buys treats for the teachers if they have one! She always finds out if they have pets first🤣

So what’s the point of your thread if you’ve worked in a school before? And you really don’t know what to say in a card to a headteacher? Come on 🙄

My kids primary school one parent would organise a collection and so you could add what you could afford. The parent would but a nicer gift for teachers TAs? Can you suggest this so it doesn’t get competitive?

Maybe not at Christmas but at the end of the summer term a little posy of fresh flowers from a garden would make a nice gift. (Maybe a week before the actual end in case the teacher is going on holiday).

When I was a teacher, it was just awkward if someone had spent lots of money, and it deffo screams ‘MAKE MY CHILD THE SPECIAL ONE’ which believe it or not, a good teacher will never do.

Glue sticks, please!

And 12 boxes of tissues.

Ooooh - and really nice Staedtler rubbers - the cheap ones they order for us just crumble into bits.
A plant for the classroom?

But I'd rather have a handwritten card and an email singing my praises to the Headteacher.

Another thought - a book for our book corner.

I remember the girls in my Year 2 class going through a phase of making friendship bracelets and they made me one with my name on, I thought it was very sweet and thoughtful and not awful at all!
Ditto all the pictures they would draw.