How much do you give to teacher's xmas gifts?

[Firey40]

Just curious...

We are at a primary school in south east england.

A mum kindly organises Christmas gifts and vouchers for the class teacher, and the two TA's

Parents are asked for a voluntary £ contribution of whatever you want to give.

How much do you give in these circumstances? Just curious. We gave £25.

Nothing.

didn’t mean to press send so early😂
But yeah, I would give nothing. I’m not into that. I am thankful but right now I’m not in position to give money if I have an extra five or 10 I might get a small gift, but that’s a huge might!

All out of primary school but the ‘suggested’ donation was £5-£10 a few years ago - out of 25 kids the total was usually around £200

£25 if far too much , as school staff we wouldn’t want families to feel like they had to contribute this at all .

personally , I love the idea of a voucher , and honestly if everyone did a pound it would still make a lovely gift.

we don’t expect gifts at all however. It’s done now , so don’t worry about it- but you really don’t have to spend that amount to show thanks

The whole point of class vouchers is also meant to be cheaper.
So fiver each is plenty.

That's £150 in a class of30 if all contribute.

I'm happy to do £10 for teaching assistant and £15 for teacher - you can't get much and I don't have a class thing to donate too.

It's a brilliant school, they look after my boy and they're paid worse than me (social worker)

My DDs at secondary and nothing appears the going rate.

£25 is far far too much. I’m a teacher and don’t expect anything at all, but if a collection is taking place I’d say £5 at an absolute maximum especially if being split between teacher/TA etc but that £1 or £2 is perfectly acceptable in a collection situation- a class of 30 contributing £2 each raises £60 which is a massive amount! I teach in a deprived area and don’t expect anything at all and am just grateful for well wishes and thanks at the end of term. My own DC go to school in a more “middle class” area and I’ve usually given £5 to class collections or £10 to the one at the very end when my daughter was leaving the school. Imagine if every parent in a class of 30 gave £25? £750? Obscene. The point of a collection is it is cheaper for individuals as the money gets pooled together for one nicer gift. If you want to give something worth £25 maybe best to stay out of the collection and get your own gift?

£25!!!! Is that for an all inclusive holiday voucher ?! That is a huge amount to get from 30 kids.

We are given a suggested donation by the parent rep organising it - it was £45 per child, which covers all staff who interact with the class, and covers Christmas gifts and end of year gifts too. Class has 14 dcs. We're happy to pay it and to have the hassle of choosing gifts sorted, we don't give any other gifts on top, just a handmade card.

This year we have done £14 per child.

£10 for teacher and £2 for each TA.

Thank you - this seems to be considerably more than most give, may I ask, if this is a private school?

£10 each. DS has two teachers (job share), 1 TA and 1 taxi driver so £40 in total.

There is no class collection though so it is all individually bought gifts. A class collection would be amazing

Thank you, these are fair points. I guess I didn't think about it hugely, and felt we can afford £25, so did that. There are 26 in the class.

I know a lot of parents don't give anything (this is all done through the parents whatsapp group, which some kids parents don't engage with at all.)

It's all completely anonymous, so there's no judgement either way.

The class parent rep usually says they get a total of about £350, and they buy some gifts and shopping vouchers. I'm happy with that

Yes, it does seem a sensible way of doing it. Probably better for the teachers.

Ours gives a small gift (a themed christmas plate signed by the class) then everything else is shopping vouchers, the teacher probably gets £100 and the TA's £50-60, which seems ok

As an ex teacher, I used to get a lot of presents at Christmas. Most of them were of no use or wanted so I would send them onto charity shops. What I did appreciate most of all was a thank you note, either drawn by the pupil or bought, that said thank you for all your help. It meant alot. There seems to be some or competition and expectation as to how much we should spend which only feeds into the modern greed culture.

£10

works out as a £100 voucher for both the teacher and t.a

£0. Unless they have been exceptional, otherwise it’s a Christmas card written by the children (which I think is a nicer gesture than yet another box of chocolates).

I don’t really get this automatic buying of presents for teachers. It feels a bit like a pissing contest TBH rather than a meaningful gesture. Last year in year 6 my DD had a rough time of friendships and bullying and her amazing TA was absolutely incredible, she made a tremendous difference to our DDs school experience. So I did buy her a spa voucher as she bloody well deserved one and wrote a long card expressing my gratitude.

TBH most teachers I meet are pretty ineffectual and I can barely get a ‘good morning’ out of them, they ignore emails and often ignore bullying behaviour towards my DC too so I am less inclined to spend money on them.

I used to give £20 but that covered my twins in the same class, otherwise 10.

At Christmas I just get a box of chocolates for them each. At the end of the school year I contribute £5 for the TA and £10 for the teacher. I’m not in a financial position to do anything more than that and, as a teacher myself, I know that any gift is appreciated but never expected.

£45!! I bet not everyone was happy to pay it

We didn't have a class collection, but I used to spend the same amount on teacher and TA. Unless the TA is part time and split with another class, I think that is fair. TA's are ridiculously underpaid and spend the same amount of time with your child (or possibly more, if they get extra support). Now I am talking myself into TAs being deserving of the bigger gift!

This is my first year with a kid in school. They have 2 teachers and and 2 TAs in the class. We will make them each a handmade card and then I've bought a Christmas candle for each teacher and a small box of chocs for the TAs. It's just a small minding. I can't afford anything more and thought a candle should at least be something they can use.

£5-£10. Private school and this was the norm. My DD used to make up little packs of fudge or peppermint creams dipped in chocolate for a lot of the staff. One year I had an abundant apple harvest so made delicious chutney or apple jelly fur everyone. Then don't have to contribute cash at all.

Yes it's a London prep.