School asking for souvenir?

[Honeybeesintrees]

DD is starting year 1, they've asked the kids to bring in a souvenir from their holidays. Not sure what to bring, we went to a beach holiday within the UK it was lovely but we didn't really buy any souvenirs, what would you bring? We bought her a bucket and spade there and also a little net for rock pool fishing that's about it

I normally just print out a couple of pictures

Bucket and spade or the net is perfect. Or a shell!

Have you got a shell knocking about or a beach pebble? A bucket and spade sounds good but does your daughter want to give it?

Let her take in anything she wants. There is more to a holiday than the going away part, and not everyone goes away. It could be, e.g. a book she enjoyed reading over the break.

if it’s just show and tell take the bucket and spade

Pretty thoughtless of the school considering how many families can’t afford a holiday…

It's unlikely the school intends to keep it.

I'd try and find a shell or rock

Really inconsiderate for those families that haven’t been away and children who have had a difficult time without the safety of daily school. I’d be complaining!

Thanks, they said holiday, day trip or special summer memory so not just holiday

I'm a teacher and I think that is wrong. I never do holiday news either because for every child who had an amazing time there will be at least one who didn't. I do give them some chat time when they can talk to their friends about anything.

I did once work in a school where the children often went on holiday to Vietnam or the Maldives where I had been to Cromer!

That's quite different. Just bring in a book your dd has enjoyed reading / having read to her over the summer as suggested. It does not need to be from your holiday ☺

I would take the word souvenir less literally - it doesn’t have to be something purchased in a gift shop, just any little memento that she would like to share of a day that she enjoyed. Could be a picture she drew with granny!

Not really. A 'souvenir from the holiday' can be anything.
A feather they found on the footpath.

A bus ticket.
A stone.
A picture they drew.

Absolutely.

There are no longer any "What I did on my summer holidays" exercises of any stripe in local schools here.

The question is "what holiday?" for many children.

When a school asks for a souvenir from the students' holiday the assumption is that the students went on a holiday.

A souvenir from summer would be a better way to ask. However, you'd still have kids bringing little cocktail umbrellas from the resort they went to in Spain or some little tchotchke bought in Greece.

Better to ask the children to ask what their hopes are for the coming school year, what they hope to learn, books they hope to read, how they hope they will feel in the classroom and the playground.

They didn't - they said "holiday, day trip or special summer memory".

@mathanxiety these are 5 year old children. A bought souvenir from a Greek island is just as exciting as a pebble shaped like a duck that was found outside the shop down the street.
I think "hopes for the coming year" is a bit deep for 5 year olds.

They won’t mean from their holiday holiday. They mean something they’ve done/enjoyed over the 6 weeks. It’ll just be a prompt for talking and getting the children settled.

The question is "what holiday?" for many children.

No. The children are starting Year one, which,(in England I am assuming, from the term 'Year One') means they have all had a holiday {from school} since they broke up in July. There is no question about what holiday when they are on their first day back from all being on holiday for 6 weeks.

When a school asks for a souvenir from the students' holiday the assumption is that the students went on a holiday.

Not in any of the schools I've taught at. I mean, some dc would have, but there would absolutely not be any assumption that the children had all left our City, and that would have been very clear when the staff were talking to them about the idea, in July.

Better to ask the children to ask what their hopes are for the coming school year, what they hope to learn, books they hope to read, how they hope they will feel in the classroom and the playground.

You are being somewhat optimistic there for 30 x 5 year olds in a new room with a new teacher on the first day back in routine of coming to school.

Then perhaps "during the summer" would be a better term?

Holiday doesn't just mean the six week summer break. It has the connotation of a holiday away from home.

Children of five are absolutely able to express their hopes for the coming school year - will they make new friends, will they learn to read, will they have fun playing with friends, will they like their teacher...

I agree, this needs to be handled sensitively.

Primary schools can be really crap at this stuff.

Some kids just won't have a souvenir of anything.

They need a 'talking point' that is less based on the actions of parents/carers and more related to school.

Anything about 'what you did over summer' just highlights inequalities and makes those who had a dismal summer aware of it.