End of year gifts for teachers?

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Is it the done thing to give end of year gifts for playgroup teachers???
My dd started in Jan and will be continuing there next academic year so I want to do the right thing.

Some of the other parents at my son's school think that wine is in "bad taste" but I KNOW it goes down a treat with the staff (I have my moles!). OK if one or two do not drink, they can always give it to someone else or take it to a party. Nice mugs are a good idea for staff room, I try to avoid the photo frame with MY child in it, that I do think is bad taste, unless they are leaving and have worked with him closely. I send in a few biscuits every now and then for the staff room anyway. Cath Kidston..... I went to her shop some time ago, full of things that seem lovely but not a thing I wanted to buy

I went to a special spa/beauty product shop and bought yummy scented tubes of hand and foot lotion. Had the shop wrap them in beautiful bags with lots of frothing ribbon. Teachers seemed very appreciative, and felt that somehow I had been a bit more creative than the usual chocolates and wine.

blossomhill, that's a lovely idea. Do you remember if it was a TY beanie? And who the hell is Cath Kidston, btw?

If I were a teacher I'd want people to stick to consumables (food, drink, smellies). At risk of sounding a bit hard-hearted can you imagine what your house would look like if you got upwards of 20-odd "things" every year that you can't consume, many of which may not be in your taste (don't know who Cath Kidston is but I bet there are some people who don't like her). Depending on the age of the kids my suggestion would be to get the kids to make some sweets or biscuits and put them in a decorated box: it's personal, it shows effort on the kids' part and it won't clutter up the teacher's house. And if the teacher really is soppy and wants a keepsake she can keep the box.

an exception would be if she was a keen gardener I might buy her a plant

I usually buy candles - sort of consumable.

I'm with hatter on this one. I used to be a teacher and, frankly, some of the stuff I used to get at the end of term was....not really to my taste IYSWIM and a lot of it ended up at the charity shop. I will be going for chocolates, biscuits and wine for DSs' teachers when they are at school!

One dd is leaving pre-school this year and all the mums have out together and are going to ask the staf what they want equipment-wise and spend some on that and give them some cash for a night out.

For other dd at school I try to avoid chocolates as I think they get so many. Have done smellies and candles. This time I might do flowers!

Really cheap option - last year my son and I picked loads of beautiful wild flowers from the nearby fields. By the time I'd tied them with raffia & added a luggage label they looked as if they'd cost a fortune from a florist BUT they still had the personal touch. Thank god end of academic year isn't in winter!

Ds1 made a present for his much-loved Year One teacher last year. We had been on a school trip to the seaside and had collected lots of shells so he painted them with different colours of pearlised acrylic paint (dead cheap from an art supply shop). I bought a frame that was cheap because it was damaged, and we glued the shells around it. Then he copied out a thing I found in a T-shirt catalogue (!) about all the things a teacher is (administrator, musician, coat finder, peace keeper etc.) and we also put in a little photograph of her building a sandcastle that I'd taken at the beach. It was hideously tacky, but in a really sweet, home-made kind of way and she was thrilled to bits with it (well if she wasn't, she hid it well!)

I am trying to think of something similarly personal (and cheap!) this year but haven't come up with anything so far.

I usually buy something for a couple of quid that looks like it costs about a tenner!!!

Something that went over very well once, and I've just repeated my own idea, is a bottle of good olive oil which can be acquired for a few euro at pretty much any mediterranean airport, if you happen to be on holiday in Spain, Italy or Greece. (Got mine in Spain for 3.50 euro each.) Ds's nursery teacher actually told me it's one of the best gifts she's received b/c it can be used. (I guess same goes for wine, as others have mentioned.) Obviously you needn't go on holiday for you gift, but it strikes me maybe a good way to kill 2 birds with 1 stone if you happen to be on holiday anyway and buy something (anything, really) that is a bit unusual but also useful and inexpensive. I've also bought stroopwaffelsthese sort of syrupy biscuits you can eat with coffeein Holland and those also have gone over extremely well. I'm no world traveller exactly, dh and I I just have family all over the place that we're obliged to visit & I use the opportunity to buy teacher gifts that have a track record of being appreciated. It does require some thinking ahead, though.

My mother used to have a (very large) drawer full of presents that she's been given by kids in her class each year. She used to get loads of knick-knack things that just weren't "her". Loads of those fruit jellies too, for some reason. I think somthing like olive oil would have gone down a bomb to be honest. Good coffee, too. Having said all that i've got earrings for dd's teacher, but I'm pretty sure they're her taste as I know she likes Rennie Mackintosh stuff.

(I forgot to point out that they were in a drawer because they were not things she wanted on display- it sounds horribly ungrateful, but it's true that teachers get far too much non-consumable stuff)

Interestingly enough my mum - who was a teacher until she had a family - didn't agree with children buying teachers presents. I never got to give any of my teachers a present ever. I have a vague idea that she thought it could be a bit competitive and unfair on less well-off kids - I went to a poshish school and I think some parents went overboard which made her cross. I kind of see her point. I do like the olive oil idea - that's comsummable without being extravagantly calorific like chocolate - you could get kids to do a luggage style label to go round the neck to make it personal.

Until reading this post, was blissfully unaware that many children gave 'proper' presents to their teachers at the end of year. Can't remember doing it when I went to school, all those years ago Ds1 is coming to the end of his reception year and am getting a little worried that he may be the only child without gift. Think I may encourage him to draw his teacher a picture - highly enjoyable for him and recyclabable for the teacher!!

I seem to remember that my (well my mum's) standard gift to teachers was a Parker pen. For Christmas I forced ds1 to "paint" mugs which we then baked and filled with pick and mix. Would have been a nice idea if we had had fewer to do - between playgroup, nursery and the gym creche we had over a dozen to do and he was bored after number 4. It ended up smacking of child labour .

Decided to go for biscuits this time round. I'm sure they're all on a diet but I bet someone in their household isn't!

like the flowers idea too - also remember that one girl gave me a mug and a box of individual coffee filters - that was a good one

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I think it probably depends on the type of school and the type of children! I used to get a lot from the Year 7 at the convent school, rather less at the mixed secondary modern and none at all at the sixth form college!

Teachers get loads of gifts but don't like to feel that children (parents) felt obliged to do it! Last year M&S advertised presents for the teacher and every teacher I knew thought it was awful! If it's a gift for the whole staff, biscuits, coffee, cream cakes, cake or chocolates all go down well.(If it's something like chocolates and they get loads they can put them away until next term )If you wanted to buy an individual teacher something because you appreciated her efforts then I'm sure it doesn't matter what and they are just glad to be appreciated. I like the idea of the personal ones. Cheaper and more heartfelt than anything from the M&S thank you teacher display!

Our school hols start tomorrow - arggh! This afternoon ds and I did some homebaking - choc chip bars for the nursery teachers and a homemade thank you note for each one. ds LOVES baking and it cost pennies to make.

I remember last year, one of our favourite teachers left She was a Reception teacher for both my DD1 and DS1 and she made a HUGE impact on their lives - even now they still speak very fondly of her.

She left to take up a 2yr contract abroad and on her last day, everyone was so upset We bought her a book that I found on its own in a middle of a shop - with poems dedicated to teachers. Some of those poems summed her up to a T. I then got DD1 and DS1 to write their own "best wishes" messages inside.

She has written to us since being abroad and we know she's coming back to the UK for a holiday next week - we're all looking forward to seeing her again

I agree with Hatter and some of the others that non consumables ar not really an option unless you know the teacher personally. I witnessed a teacher opeing a 'gold' chain from a parent who obviously was being generous and sincere but I could see that it wasnt in any way the teacher's cup of tea. She hid it well but I just felt it was such a waste. My children generally want to make cards which I think is lovely but I would discourage home made 'objects' as I dont think many teachers would want 20 or 30 of them... I usually buy small pots of jam or coffee or something. This am have bought some nice mustard.

I found a brill gift! In Tesco they do a blank mug which dh/ds can decorate using the supplied pens. So the teacher gets a personalised gift which s/he can use in the staffroom and the best thing about it is that it only cost £3