Good gift idea for teacher????

[bonkerz]

Thought about giving a gift to the teachers at school of an oxfam donation. Wondered if i donated to the school gifts for example school dinners for 100 pupils etc if the teachers would feel i was weird!!!

I like the idea of charity presents but never buy them myself. I support the charities that mean something to me and only charities in the UK or medical charities - I personally feel we should help our own before trying to help other countries.

What i'm trying to say is that I see charity giving as a personal choice and wouldnt like somebody to pick a charity on my behalf - does that make sense?

yeah i understand and i suppose thats why im worried about giving it, dont want to look bad IYKWIM.

Any suggestions for presents for teachers who have really helped DS since he started in september??

I'm starting to bend a little towards that myself, Happy. We have enough problems in this country which we need to sort before we try helping other countries. Charities helping carers are my thing at the moment, particularly child carers.

To this end, the teachers are getting a Christmassy Bridgwater tin of homemade brownies from the DDs this year, which helps no-one (although I promise to use Fairtrade choc!).

Actually, I'm sure there was a good thread about this last year - lots of teachers saying what they actually liked to receive. I'll try to dig it out ...

Message withdrawn

Here you go@

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2652&threadid=236624#4759453

booze, strong booze

Wine is always appreciated.

Or a nice bunch of flowers is what I like.

Teachers always receive so many boxes of chocolates and sweets and many are always on diets !!

Another idea is to club together with a couple of mums or even more and put a couple of pound in and get some vouchers, this would go down really well with any teacher.

I'm a teacher and I would be pleased at the 100 free school dinners (in fact SIL gave that to me last year or the year before that)

But people do differ.

I give a box of biscuits to the staff room in the weeks running up to Christmas , which are generally frantic and they need a bikkie!

I did the Oxfam thing last year and it went down really well, also gave them a bottle of our home-grown apple juice so they would have a treat for themselves.

I hate it when some busy body says "We are buying Mrs Teacher this and it costs this, that works out at £XX per head." I always go along with it but to be honest it pisses me off.
First of all they buy the most ridiculous things and secondly buying a gift for the teacher is not mandatory.

As a secondary teacher, we rarely get gifts [sorry for myself emoticon]. I would definitely appreciate any thought but a thoughtful card would be the best. MammyM's dd would have made me blub with her gorgeous picture .

My favourite was a Christmas card written by a Year 7 in my English class - 'Thanks Ms xxx you have teached us really good this year.'

Not that 'good' obviously...

MY DS1's form teacher (they keep the form teacher right the way through school) is an English teacher and we always get him a book. I always buy it from a bookshop local to school and enclose a gift receipt in case he already has it and wants to change it. He said it makes a change from 6 months out of date sugar encrusted jellies.

As a teacher, a homemade card with a handwritten note inside is always my favourite but a decent bottle of wine always goes down well too! I'm just touched to be given any present but a genuine 'thank you' would be my greatest present of all. x

I have reservations about the charity gifts for lots of reasons (though happy to receive them myself!)

However, I did the OXfam thing for ds' nursery past year - partly because there were about 5 staff there at the time and I didn't really want to buy for them all.

I got a school related gift - school meals or textbooks or something.

Seemed to go down well.

thanks for the replies. Im not sure now what to do. Could give wine but DS started the school in september and TBH there are so many teachers who are currently helping DS right now (complex child with suspected ADHD and ASD and caused ALOT of problems at school but school been amazing so far) I would feel weird about giving to some and not others especially seeing as i dont know ALL the people who help DS.

How about if i give a larger oxfam gift and then a tin of chocs to share in staff room?????

What about a selection of fine teas (teabags)and a tin of M&S Belgian choc biccies for the staff room and a card to all the teachers to say thank you from your family?

haven't read the whole thread, but another vote for booze! and lots of it, trust me...

When I was breaking up with my ex husband he bought me a camel for the third world.

bonkerz that sounds perfect - especially with a note saying how much you appreciate them. What a lovely parent you are!

DH says to avoid anything with the words "Best/Favourite Teacher" on them.

What about a tiny pot plant?

WINE ALWAYS GOES DOWN VERY WELL sorry about caps, DS is fighting me for the computer....

ok well i spoke to DS and showed hom the oxfam site and he chose 100 school dinners and also a donation to build a new school. Will write a personnal note from me and DH and DS has personnalised the gift card from him. Will send in with tin of chocs attached!