Affordable teacher gift ideas for end of year

[FunGirlMum]

Hi,
I know I've left it late, but has anyone got any good, reasonably priced, ideas for teacher end of year gifts please?

I've bought bits in the past, but they turn up and always look a bit cheap. I've looking for something that looks great, but doesn't cost the earth.

Thanks

Just to agree with pp I like getting cards, especially home made ones. A small box of chocs is lovely, or a plant. You can pick them up in the supermarket for £1-2.
A girl gave me a plant from Tesco years ago which is still going strong!

Instant coffee. Jesus

a card.

Small sentimental gifts are lovely but I imagine can be hard for teachers to actually use or store.

If we’re not doing a class gift then I usually go for a Costa voucher or similar so they can treat themselves to a drink whenever suits them.

Otherwise I’d consider getting them something useful but cute for the classroom - some of our teachers use personalised stickers (‘Mrs Smith says well done’ for example) so I might get something like that.

My daughter has just finished her first year teaching (not UK). She received lots of presents - a mix of ideas from parents and from the pupils and absolutely appreciates the thought (a home-made tote bag, a sunflower picked from a field, one wrapped sweet❤️, chocolates, etc) but what she loved were the written messages from the children (some on the black board - she took a photo - some on a post-it, some drawings). The presents are a nice touch, if you like, but she'll keep the written thank-yous - she was very touched and also very much by the written notes from their parents.

Place holding

As a teacher, honestly homemade cards and lovely messages are the BEST. If you want to buy something, I always buy my children's teachers something for their classroom - mostly age group appropriate books to share with the class.

Box of Maltesers and a card. Job done.

Hi, I’m a teacher. Firstly, thank you for considering the teacher for a gift - please know it means so much.
Personally, my favourite gifts are handwritten cards from parents, plants, coffee vouchers & wine.

I am also a parent to children in the same school I work - this year I’ve set aside £10 per teacher and I have bought them a £5 book (The Teacher, Frieda McCann is it?) and wrapped it with a pocket - quick look at online videos and very easy and very attractive) - I popped a £5 costa gift card and book mark in the pockets at Christmas and they absolutely loved them! Got my daughter to help wrapping it was that easy.
For a cheaper option, £5, do the book and for added homemade touch, have your child make a cute bookmark. I would personally love that!

but also note. Please don’t feel obliged. A thank you card with heartfelt words goes much farther than money in my opinion.

I can't say enough times that a picture, card, poem, painting etc is a beautiful and very welcome gift and more than enough.

If you would still like to buy something though - I have loved hand cream and Costa vouchers and a pretty watering can! 😘

A card your child has made is plenty, as is just a thank you at the classroom door at the end of the year. Teachers get so many gifts, it’s super generous but there are only so many best teacher mugs/pens/etc we can keep and most of us don’t have space for teacher home decor around our homes 😅 I just get my daughter’s teacher a coffee shop gift card. Daughter makes a card, I add a thank you note and throw in a gift card - £5 at Christmas, £10 at the end of the year. Cheap, quick, one size fits all and it will always be an appreciated gift!

When DC was in primary I used to get a £5 costa voucher for the teacher and each of the TAs that helped in the classroom ( some worked between the 2 classes in the year).

I also took in the boxes of biscuits you get in m&s for the staffroom (so other staff could be included).
In lower primary years DC made a card, but not later primary years.

Handmade cards or drawings are well appreciated way more than any store-bought stuff would be!
If you feellike you absolutely must get something, I'd go either for posh chocolate or tea/coffee sets, or nice stationery or something personalized like custom calendars or something like that. Definitely not mugs or trinkets like that!

Tesco do a Paperchase range - they do some lovely items of stationery.

Put a fiver in a card and say thanks for all your hard work. Treat yourself on me! A fiver will get them their favourite treat. Everyone is different so a voucher probably wouldn’t get used. My children’s teachers have been non coffee/tea drinkers/vegan/with allergies. I discovered this as I stayed late on the last day of school looking for my child’s missing cardigan. When I saw them swapping gifts with each other!

Houseplants!
But, a present really isn’t needed and I always love receiving a note/card. Even if’s on a scrap of paper, written by the child that morning.

Hi, I ordered these and received them this morning, they are great, thank you for recommending them.
I just got the teacher's name engraved on the pens and the box, so that they can use them in any classroom or at home, without too much of a personalised message.

When DH was teaching primary the two most memorable gifts were

1. a massive spider crab that the child and parents had caught and a bottle of wine to go with it
2. a mosaic tile that the child had made with a clever design incorporating the class number and a bike (DH’s hobby). The child must be about 30 by now I am guessing but we still have the 5T bike tile! Oh and actually he does still have the cyclist mug that someone in the same class bought - how the heck that has lasted the usual breaks in this house I do not know.

But that said - all the hundreds of chocolates and wine we’ve had over the years have always been massively appreciated. I’m quite sad he only does peri-music now 😂

When my children were this age, I would often get a small pot plant for the teacher as it shows appreciation without being embarrassingly extravagant. They can sometimes be planted in the garden at a later stage or be thrown out once it has died. Either way, a teacher does not feel obliged to keep it.

As a teacher, just want to say, that as much as gifts are appreciated, its the handwritten cards with messages in that we keep for decades!

I would like a Carribean Holiday, a Liberty Voucher with several zeros on it, a week in an Air bnb or a Me and Em voucher…..
if not, just a lovely card 😀

Trolley coin key rings for the supermarket. Everyone I get one for is thrilled 😂

Bit late now but we organised a class gift for our Reception class where we did a photobook of thank you letters from the kids. Each page was a photo of a thank you letter they'd written and we got copied printed for the two teachers and the TA. There was a little money leftover so also got them vouchers to a good brownie shop nearby that also does vegan/gluten free options so hopefully covers all basis!