Present ideas for teachers, nursery staff, childminders etc

[iloveholidays]

I think about this every year, looking for ideas for DD1s teacher and teaching assistant and also DD2s childminder.

always struggle to think of anything which is toiletries or chocolates etc, so thought it would be a good idea to start a thread.

any teachers out there, what do you like to receive?

I work in childcare and always get loads at xmas. You get the usual smellies/chocs which are always nice, but other favourites have been,

A mug with my initial on
A personalised bookmark
A bauble for my xmas tree that a child had glittered
A lovely festive yankee candle (cupcake i think)
Homemade gingerbread xmas trees
A little desk calendar where the child had drawn pictures on each month

Hope that helps! It doesnt matter about the price etc its just nice to know you are appreciated :) one child from a rather deprived background drew me a picture of a reindeer and did a little thank you letter on the back. Meant just as much as fancier presents.

Cant believe i forgot my favourite! Im always moaning i cant find a pen so last year i got a nice one with 'shabby's pen' printed on the side. Nobody has the heart to pinch that one! :)

I'm a childminder and my favourites are hand cream (I wash my hands about a hundred times a day changing nappies etc!) and wine! They always get me wine, I wonder if that reflects what they think of me or what they think of their kids .

We do s class collection
About a tenner each
Then teacher & ta's get vouchers

CaptainSweatPants that's £300 if there are 30 kids in the class! Wow £10 is a lot of money for some families.

our class collections are split between main teacher, two TA's and the coordinator for the year who is very hands on, so a tenner is about right.

Ours get a box of biscuits and a card. I used to go over board but 3 years on I think it just gets out of hand as many don't get them anything.

We made bird seed ornaments last year using heart shaped cookie cutters, £land bird seed, a few handfuls if raisins and some lard. We made enough for teachers plus family and friends and still had a fridge full of them left over for our garden.

Apparently Amazon vouchers are always appreciated if you'd rather buy something. I think teachers spend a lot of their own money on books and essentials like pritt stick and felt pens, so they can choose to either spend it on themselves or buy something for class.

Have bought various bits for christmas and end of term including nice large notebooks (they like for staff meetings), scarves, jewellery, yankee candles, perfume etc. Need to look for something new for christmas as not yet sorted those.

So glad someone posted this, I am looking at the moment. Dotcom Giftshop is good and Wilkos, Dunlem Mill for sale stuff ATM. Ie glass candles for 70p

it's probably predictable but I make personalised felt decorations so am going to make one of those for DD's teacher along with some homemade coconut ice and a little box of homemade truffles. DD who is 3 loves to help me to bake and make things in the kitchen so I think she will be very proud to be able to give her teacher something she made.

Must note that DD is in preschool and most of the mums there don't do a collection unless the kids are going to big school at the end of the year. So for Christmas etc, we make a little something.