Roll up, roll up to find out what MNers told us about buying end-of-year presents for teachers

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello

Some of you may remember filling out a survey for us on teachers' presents a while back - and we're announcing the results today.

Over 1000 of you took the survey, and you told us...

...you spend an average of £10.60 on end-of-year presents for primary school teachers, with one in ten forking out £25 or more.
....8% of you don’t buy teachers presents, because you don’t think it’s necessary; 4% of you believe their salary is reward enough.
...The most popular end-of-year gifts are chocolates (bought by 23%), vouchers (17%), alcohol (16%), homemade gifts made by the child (13%) and flowers (9%).

65% of you say you give presents because you like to show appreciation, and nearly eight out of ten (79%) say your child enjoys giving their teacher a gift. But when it comes to guessing what drives other parents to buy, a cynical 45% of you believe that some enjoy the one-up(wo)manship of buying the best present.

8% of you buy presents simply because you don’t want to look mean, and one in eight (12%) have felt pressured to contribute more than you've budgeted to a class collection. 39% of you club together for a class collection while 44% prefer to go it alone.

If you're gearing up for the end-of-year booze-n-chocs gifting bonanza, you can see some suggestions here - and you can see coverage of our survey here, here and here.

Let us know what you think - and feel free to tell us tear-jerking tales about farewell presents to amazing teachers. (If you're a teacher, feel free to tell us tear-jerking tales about the best/worst gifts you've been given.)

Go forth and gift! (Or don't, it's totally up to you.)

MNHQ x

I'm a yR TA and a little girl carefully coloured in and cut out a little blue butterfly and gave it to me today.

She said it was to look after me because I've been feeling sad (I am, i'm struggling with work a bit). I was so touched it made me cry. She doesn't have the most stable homelife but she is one of the kindest, most helpful and lovely girls I've ever met. I don't expect presents, or even a thank you, but this kind of thing I'll always remember.

It sounds cliched but my absolute most memorable was a card from a girl who'd turned her beviour around in year 6 and wrote "Thank you, you have made me a better person". Over 25 years I've forgotten all the chocolates and wine, but I will never forget that....

Dd decorated a t shirt for her Reception class teacher because she was sad that the teacher didn't have bright and sparkly clothes. The teacher gamely wore the abomination t shirt adorned with glitter and sequins and neon flowers all day and delighted dd. She did say she would keep it even if she never wore it again

Just a thank you would be nice to be honest! Rarely get that but then I bet people in most work places aren`t thanked either.

Rowan MNHQ, I hope you did ask the OP permission for her thread to be used?.

Our class clubbed together to get a gift at Christmas for the teachers. There was no set amount, and the money also went on cards. We bought vouchers for the teacher, and the TA's, and had enough to get some nice teas & coffees for the staff in the office who deal with all the bumps & bruises, nosebleeds & vomit at school.

My DD painted a nice box for her teacher and decorated it with stickers. She put a thank you card inside (also painted by herself) about how she is going to miss her.
I think those presents are much nicer than an obligatory Yankee Candle or whatever else. Her teacher got a box of gingerbread decorated by her and me for Christmas.

Because I have 2 school age DC, and a tight budget, I bought tea, coffee and naice biscuits for the staffroom last year, I'll probably do the same this year.

I fear the gift-giving has got to the point where it ends up being an extra burden for teachers. At our school they often give the children some pencils or party bag type gift (x30!), and some of them have taken to writing thank you notes (x lots!). I do genuinely want to show my appreciation, but the last thing I want to do is pile another "job" on them for the hols.

Also everyone seems to give £10 or more for class collections, and it seems embarrassing to be handing over £200 to £300 collections.

When I was leaving primary school (20 years ago) I wanted to give a present to my learning support teacher because she was AMAZING and I would never have been ready for secondary school without her hard work and dedication.
So I filled a jotter with drawings, poems and short stories all relating to what we had been working on for the last 4 years. She was so moved she started crying and so did I!
I have never encountered another teacher (or person) like her and so grateful that she taught me. We bumped into each other almost a decade ago and she still had that jotter!

The best gift is something that stays with you.