to expect a thank you from teachers for their end of term gifts?

[BigBadMummy]

I bought three gifts for staff at my DC's school, various voucher/gift card things with a value of £25. (all sorts of reasons why it was that much money, it wouldn't normally be, and it certainly wasn't for staff at my other DC's school).

I have heard nothing. I didn't actually get to see two of the staff on the last day of term so gave them to the other member and asked if he could pass them on.

Is it too much to ask for an email, saying thanks?

How can we expect our DCs to say thank you for gifts if they do not get the same in return?

I always said thank you collectively (and individually if the present had a name on - you get a few that sneak in onto your desk without names on the tag... they usually remember "To Miss" and forget the from bit) at the end of the day when I said goodbye to the class and gave them all a small end of term present each (it used to be something like a pencil and notepad or similar most years I had classes of my own - still was muttered at by some parents with disapproval - considering I'd bought and wrapped 30 out of my own money... grrr). It's usually suffixed with a "and can you thank mums and dads who helped you with the lovely presents for me."

Catching parents to thank them unless they actually come into the classroom is nigh on impossible with the chaos of sending everything painting/craft/excavations to the bottom of trays/lockers/the vimto bottle collection one of mine had been working on all year (I have no idea WHY) on the final day - it's utterly utterly frantic.

The odds of getting personally written thank you cards, or an email are generally pretty slim considering by about noon on the last day, the ICT bods have asked for the laptops to be locked away for the summer, your desk is 4 feet buried in bits of paper, and I tend to discourage kids from bringing things like reading diaries in on the final day as it's just more stuff to cart home - I prefer them to bring a couple of carrier bags to cart their stuff home in!

But when would it stop? The gift is a 'thankyou' gift - thankyou for the thankyou gift - thankyou for the thankyou for the thankyou gift........
I'd be amazed if I got an e-mail from D's teacher. Is that a usual way of communicating with them in some schools now?

increasingly yes
i get LONG ones from parents sometimes
can be rather intersting

God that was funny compycod. I needed that laugh.

reallY?
I wasnt being funny. Its just interesting when you get both sides of a story. And helpful sometimes to help a kid.

One of my ds teachers emails me most weeks-i think hes after some pinking shears lol .

There's no way I'm getting DS's teacher anything. The cowbag. If I could get away with it I'd quite like to slap her.

I'm in a bad mood. Can you tell?

lol.
its MUCH faster. a parent can say " please look after George his dog died" and you say " ok"
finitto

I email my dd's teachers to say thanks for something or other.

I never see them though.

I used to buy presents in JUnior school, but not at senior school.

Mind you dd and her mates are making badges f or their teachers this year - they have got some brilliant teachers. Their maths teacher has a bagde with 'I am King Cool' on it

Teenage girls are weird.

My DS once received a thank you letter in the post from his teacher. He slept with it under his pillow.

lol @ Tidey I don't feel very inclined to get DS2's reception teacher anything either, she didn't have to write 'being silly' about 4 times in his report, he's in reception, of course he's silly

"give with a good heart or dont bother"

Wise words, nickschick.

Agree also that the end of year teacher's gift, being a thank you, doesn't require a thank you in return (at least not in written form - a verbal thank you suffices in most circumstances imo).

TBH I was more offended by the pre printed named letter ds2 was handed when he passed across a gift in infants, sugesting the gift was expected, that no reply which to me suggests busy last day of term.

And £25? ours vary but as we have to get 20 due to a wide number of assigned TA's / support staff, the standard is a pot of home amde jam or pineapple chutney with a key ring made by the child tied around it.
DS1's TA is getting a necklace we amde together but that's becuase she has quite literally changed his life.

Oh and the lollipop lady would put a box by the crossing on the alst day of term for you to drop teh pressie as you passed.

Thank goodness we now have a zebra crossing!

I used to teach and received all sorts of oddities at the end of the year - mostly smelly potions and unguents which made me horribly self-conscious and think that perhaps I smelt odd (but I have been reassured this is not the case).

I never got pinking shears though. I would love pinking shears.

SGM would you really have preffered a library book? I often think of that but didn't know. Last time I went into school to read the kids were reading books so old they talked about Daley Thompson and hopes he would do well at the forthcoming olympics (!!!!), they deffo need sorting.

I wrote a 'poem' for our lollipoip lady when my dc left school (its framed and in her loo) it goes

Our lollipop lady's the best
shes the fastest in the North west
Her first name is thats how all the kids greet her
now shes off for 6 weeks for a rest.

Shelling you are more deserving of shears than that bloody Compy .

Some of the dses teachers have sent individual notes home thanking the children for their gifts. Others, I assume, thank the child in person.

A friend of mine went into her ds2's class, to pick up something he'd forgotten on the last day of term, and saw the handmade card he'd made in the teacher's bin.

i wouldn't expect it, but then i am fairly anti 'thank you ' notes. if you see someone to say thank you, or ring/email then the job is done.

if it's been posted then you should send one as acknowledgement.

but all the ones that teachers get - no way. and once school is shut, how is she supposed to get hold of email/addresses? even if i went in to work over the summer, i wouldn't have access to that info, and my school laptop got taken in most summers to be 'rejuvenated' so couldn't even look up emails.

when the Y6s leave the heads office is full of flowers, literally looks like a florists-
and often she is jetting off on holiday within days so they are al going to die in an empty house.

I have already decided that we will give eithre a donation for books for the library, or a rose for the school garden - "golden memories" or "happy child" perhaps

When I taught, and now as a TA< I always thank the children for any gifts I recieve. I always say thank you to the child at the time of recieving the gift, and - if they are present to - to the grown up. However, due to the nature of a busy room don't always get chance to note who bought what in order to write a thank you afterwards. If they were passed on to me however I would seek out the child to go and say thank you - I may not, howver, seek out the parent.

At DD's school she has always recieved a thank you card pr letter from her teachers for any gifts recieved - but their class sizes are far far smaller and so much more manageabl.

I think your gift is saying thank you to them for what they have done. It shouldn't be to make their lives harder when they already have loads to do. They probably did thank the children at the time they received the gift too.

Ok so I ABU.

I wouldnt have minded if the DCs had been thanked in person. I don't even know if the teachers received them.

And having spent time thinking about it so they didnt get more plastic tat, flowers or soaps, or even booze which seems to have been in abundant supply (hence two of them being iTunes vouchers, and the other being Monsoon) I suppose I just thought an acknowledgement would be nice.

Ah well. Back to Yardley soap collections next year.

yabu

I would have raised an eyebrow if I had been given pinking shears too. Surely they should come out of the school budget.