gifts for teachers????

[rockmama]

ok, all, how do we feel about this? as ds1 is just finishing reception, i am new to this....do i get his (v lovely) teacher a gift? and if so, what kind/spend appropriate/etc...? and do i get classroom assistant a gift as well?

Home made every time! (For teacher and TA alike).

Up to you. My DS is autistic with ADHD. I have had my DLA in today and have ordered a Moonpig card and a Willowtree figure for his one to one teaching assistant who has been utterly fantastic with DS for the past two years. Next year DS will go to the juniors which is a separate school hence the bigger spend ths year.

like, baking? or art?

moonpig is a good suggestion, thanks. never got anything from there.

One thing to avoid is flowers as ,although lovely, teachers may be going on holiday the minute they can at the end of term.

right, no flowers....i've just had a vision of a load of teachers running out of school together in a flurry of petals.....

Craft. Or that's what we do. Home-made cards from the children; I've had them decorate tea-towels (which don't take up much storage space in a teacher's kitchen ), and I've had them make Christmas decorations. We've also made jam. My main criterion is that it has to be something that reminds the teacher of my little darlings.

I'm not patient enough for craft, although I aspire to be the type of mother who is....

DD is finishing reception & is doing decorated cotton shopping bags, she'll enjoy doing them & at least they are useful!
When her teacher left earlier in the year she made some flowers out of tissue paper & straws & sprayed perfume on them.

roundabout1, I like the bag idea. What do you need for that?

I always think they deserve the hard stuff as they're getting towards the end of the year and send in a bottle of wine.

When I helped at a school, M&S voucher was best. May seem impersonal but it can be used for whatever they want - clothes, food, books, flowers, electronics, homeware.

I think any gift giving should be banned or a price limit per child set by the school, as it encourages a oneupmanship environment.

Does the child who doesn't give enough (or at all) become less well taught than the extravagant giver? Will the teacher find it more difficult to give a disappointing report to the child who has given them a large present, I wonder? It all plays on the parents' fear of whether they are giving enough and not wanting to let their child down or have their child discriminated against in any way.

If I was the teacher, I'd ask them to give to a charity and not want to know the amount. At a push, the class can group together and give a group gift but individual presents create unfair inequalities.

queen - ijust bought plain cotton bags & some fabric pens off ebay, were quite cheap too.

wine