To email the teacher

[Princesspollyyy]

my daughters (secondary school GCSE year) teacher is really good, very dedicated and committed and just an excellent teacher and lovely person. Would it be weird to send her an email thanking her for all her hard work and wishing her a lovely Christmas?

We all appreciate any positive comments, please do! Xxx

Send me £100 and I'll let you know 🤣

@MrsHamlet

lol nice try. It would have absolutely no effect and you know it.

Please do - it's genuinely lovely to get those kind of emails.

I’m a teacher and you’d be surprised how quick parents are to complain about the smallest things and how many complaints get sent. It’s very demotivating and is part of the reason teachers are leaving in droves. I cherish a rare nice parent email and that small act of kindness would make someone’s day/week/term.

Fantastic idea! Over 30 years ago, before emails, cards or letters to me saying this really mattered. I still take so much from parents who wrote/said this to me. It made all the hard work so worthwhile.

It would be exactly as effective as all the messages kids write me in their exam papers....

It’s lovely that you did it and ignore the comments from miserable people about bribery because that’s just ridiculous negativity. I have over 20 years’ teaching experience and emails / cards like this make my day. I keep them forever.

Teacher here.
Do it.

Don't second guess acts of kindness! They are few and far between. Let your daughter know too, teach our kids that being kind and showing gratitude is the norm! Too many people share that they have complaints with anyone that will listen.

Christmas...whether you are religious or not...is about giving!

You're so right, the email is the one that is exceptional. All teachers get cards from most of the kids.

Yes you should , its such a hard job with terrible pay and very little thanks.
Copy the head teacher in on the email too.
A lovely thing to do.

What a weird (and wrong) way of looking at it. Yes they have a lot to do so knowing they are doing a good job would be VERY appreciated. And seeing as teachers have 0 impact on the outcome of GCSE (in the sense of not grading them etc) not sure sucking up happens much

As a teacher I would not see it like this at all. I have no control over their final grade so it couldnt be sucking up. I would not mind loads of emails thanking me. Would make a change to all the emails remo ding me of what I haven't done and why have a done certain things

Exactly. I started teaching (secondary) in 1981 and whilst parental complaints were not nearly so prevalent then (no email, so writing took much more effort), praise or thanks were very rare indeed.

In 1987, a young man whom I'd taught to A level turned up at my door, a week after they got their results, with a beautiful crystal vase - a thank you gift from his parents. I still have it.

As a teacher I would not see it like this at all. I have no control over their final grade so it couldnt be sucking up. I would not mind loads of emails thanking me. Would make a change to all the emails reminding me of what I haven't done and why have a done certain things!

@Princesspollyyy

listen to the teachers who ar ex saying it would be lovely, not the randoms being weird.

My son hand wrote Christmas cards for all his teachers.

we emailing the teachers that had made the biggest impact on him and copied in the head of department but went into detail about the impact they had on our son and why and the progress made and thanked them for going above and beyond. We did this last week and dropped gifts in eg wine on Friday afternoon.

one of the teachers his French teacher emailed us to thank us and said it had been a very hard week last week and to get our email just before logging off had made him ‘quite emotional’. My son really didn’t like French at the start of the year and he now treats Duolingo as a reward 🤷‍♀️🤣for tidying his room and can’t wait to do French homework. He had a nice bottle of champagne and said he was having it this evening with his family. Teaching is a pretty thankless task so if one email or bottle of wine can show someone how appreciated they are it’s not a big ask. So yes email.

I MUST stop replying to posts before reading the full thread!!

I'm glad you emailed the teacher! I'm sure it's been nice to get at the end of a long term!!

lol

I would LOVE my inbox to be full of lovely messages. I would reply to every single one.

I work in a school (pupil facing but not a teacher). Our headteacher/SLT have not said a single nice thing to me in two and a half years. If I didn't get the occasional lovely email from parents or card from pupils it would be much harder to think that I was doing a good job. Thank you for being one of the good ones.

I did this. My daughter's just started GCSEs, Y10. I actually emailed the Head to thank several of her teachers as the school ethos seems to be to make the GCSE years as stress-free as possible. Teachers are putting themselves out and taking time to ensure that every child is made to feel good about their progress and the GCSE process. Can't praise the school highly enough, so an email is the least I could do.

I personally would have got a card and small gift. An email is a bit intrusive (assuming she’s on holiday) and impersonal. However it’s better than no acknowledgment at all, so go for it!

A positive email isn't intrusive.