A present for teacher

I think presents for teachers is a divisive practice that should be stopped. There were several types of child in my class:
*The child who brought a fancy present and bottle of fizz
*The child who brought something cheap and cheerful from the pound shop (or off the back of a lorry, like the little clock that I discovered went backwards!)
*The child who brought nothing but had to witness all the others giving gifts
*The child whose mother bought and wrapped a present and the child had no idea what it was!

I always thanked the gift bearers and made sure those who had no gift knew I loved them all equally but how bad must those little ones have felt.

I believe that in the same way, expensive, so called 'educational' foreign trips are a divisive practice in schools. We never sent ours on skiing trips or other jollies because I don't think children need to learn about 'haves and have nots' so graphically in school.

I was the person who contributed to the Christmas presents for my older grandsons teachers when he was at infant school he is in year 3 now so fairly recently, at his infant school the class PTA rep would collect £15 per child and a present would be bought from it for the teacher, her 2 class room teaching assistants and the School care taker!

I taught secondary and Sixth Form before retiring early in July. I received about 8 Christmas presents and 10-12 end of year gifts mostly from exam students who I had stayed behind after school to coach through exam technique and improvement. I quite enjoyed the creative gifts they bought me. My favourite was a ticket to a cricket match some of them clubbed together to buy me. One year they made me a cheese board because they knew I love cheese with several students buying one piece of cheese. I don't see a problem with teachers receiving low value gifts and nice cards thanking my efforts. It made me feel appreciated. More than £10 is ott in my opinion. We will be sending form tutor £10 Amazon voucher as I know a box or two of chocolates is lovely but 10 boxes a bit much.

I’d say that is far too much. A box of sweets, toiletries or a candle would be fine.

In my last job one of my colleagues used to bring lots of
boxes of chocolates & biscuits. His mother was a Teacher.

My DD tries to make a small hand made gift or a small basket of small items.

I never sent Presents for the Teacher when DD was at School, she's 37 now.

I used to ask that if they felt they wanted to give anything, to give a written promise of something good they would do over Christmas. We had a "promise board" where these slips of paper would be pinned, and usually one or more of the girls would decorate it. After Christmas we would go through the promises to find out whether they had followed through. Generally the whole class would participate as there was no competitive element involved. I still got the odd box of chocolates, candle, mug etc but I discouraged these. I didn't need presents for doing my job.

I have to thank this poster for the wonderful and hilarious reminder of a time when my daughter was at a prep school where the other parents were very affluent. (We lived off baked beans to give her a good start.) I pulled into the car park to see two yumski mumskis bent over with the effort of heaving a tree in a gigantic pot between them. The tree (six foot high) was the teacher's end of term present. I laughed until tears ran down my face.

Good try M&S, they must work on the premise 'yonder goes a sucker. I'm sure that it's regarded as good policy for businesses to raise the bar each year on these occasions.
P.s. I was touched and delighted to be presented with a box of Shortbread from 'the class' where I've volunteered to help yr.2 readers. However, I have a sneaky feeling that the teacher funded those.

As an ex teacher I have to say I really appreciated that some families were kind enough to give me present at Christmas and at the end of term. I wouldn't have wanted or expected more than a small box of chocolates or a plant, anything expensive would have ben embarrassing. My best present was a hyacinth bulb in a pot given to me on Mother's Day !! by a child. That was especially touching.

unethical!

I was the Nurse Manager of a large hardworking community nursing team who went out in all weathers at all times of the day and night to large numbers of patients and rarely did any of them tell me they were stressed and if they did it was social circumstances rather than their work. At Christmas some of the patients liked to give them a small gift usually chocolates or biscuits a tradition of many years standing. Sadly we received a directive from on high saying they must not accept gifts any longer as this was in ethical and may also attract the attention of the HMRC. I found it impossible to notice the boxes of chocs in the clinic bases when I popped in!!

As a retired teacher, I may say that presents, if they weren't obviously within the range of a child's pocket money or obviously made by the child, always made me feel uncomfortable as the more expensive ones can feel like bribes.

Any really expensive gift was declined by my colleagues and myself and the head-mistress was prepared to state that the school had a policy against staff receiving expensive presents.

My best present, was the parents of a pupil, who when enrolling their younger child said "Oh, how nice to see you, does this mean our daughter will have you for English? We've been crossing fingers that she would."

So stick to thank you notes or letters, and perhaps, a potted plant or a bunch of flowers. No one could consider that a bribe for better marks.

And in case you are curious, I have had pupils and once parents ask me, what it would cost to get me to give their children better marks. You should have seen the look on the faces when I said "It would cost me my job, and both you and I a prison sentence, as the laws against bribery are strict in this country."

radicalnan I agree. I am shocked that it is allowed. I went to school in the UK and Canada and it wasn't allowed or expected at any of the schools I went to. In Canada, this would be called 'apple polishing' after parents who used to give the teacher an apple and it was not a compliment.
I don't know if it is acceptable now at those schools but I hope not.

I think it should only be a small token Gift, £22 is far too much ...

I don"t believe in this presents for the teacher at all. When my own children were youngsters it never happened, they took a card and that was it. Why has everything got to be so materialistic nowadays. It all smacks of rivalry and who can outdo the others....where will it end?

glammanana,That headmaster sounds a very sensible chap.I think these expectations are awful,parents feeling they have to outdo each other with presents to teachers.When my son was at school,25 years ago,I always hoped that the school uniform should have been imposed with regard to wearing of plimsolls in the gym.They were cheap and all the same.Children often complained that their £90 trainers had been stolen or damaged.

I have a friend who is a teacher and she always says she wishes parents didn't buy presents. A card with a personal greeting is really appreciated and large, expensive presents don't buy special treatment for a child.

I work with a guy who's wife is a teacher, and he has said that a lot of his wife's gifts go to the charity shop, or are re-gifted. No one wants to be the first to turn around and say they don't want to give sometimes quite expensive gifts, and no child wants to be the one with no present for their teacher. To give to a charity is an excellent idea, and a little note thanking the teacher for all their hard work. Just needs a few brave mums to do it.

My daughter is a teacher in a primary school where most parents are poor. About a third give teacher a Christmas present in any class. The most valued one is dinner for four at a local resturant given by the Italian who have three children at the school.The teachers who don't have one of the children in the class compete for the remaining place. Wine & brandy included. Its understood they don't go on a busy night and a complimentary message is placed on Trip Advisor afterwards. Most of the other gifts are cheap wine/perfume which are valued for the thought and are quietly donated to the tombola in the Spring.

Well said wildswan16

I think it is the headteachers who should clamp down on this. No teacher needs 20 or 30 presents every Christmas, most of which she/he probably never uses or wants. A home-made Christmas card is all that is needed for a child to say a special thank-you at Christmas.

I think this is testament to our materialistic society. Parents trying to out do each other too!

If I were a teacher, I would love a truly handmade gift or handwritten note from the child itself. Some of these extravagant gifts are more like bribes if you ask me..

My gc aged 10 was going to be famous writer when she grew up and so wrote her first book aged 10. It was a simple story about a girls football team going to Australia, she wrote 14 chapeters, we helped her print them and bind them and she gave her teacher a signed copy as a Christmas present. The teacher was over the moon and told her it was the best present ever. She then made more copies and sold them 50p unsigned and a £1 signed. Has never become a famous writer!

I really like the idea of each child donating a small amount to the school funds. My youngest grandchildrens school is always struggling for money.

This is the first year ( I know were only 3/4 months in) that either if mine have had the same teacher continuously . They've normally had at least 2-3 by now .

Stop it!!!! Gifts for teachers are inappropriate, they show our children that commercialism is more important than respect and duty. A hand made card from the child is lovely, a note from the parents is gratifying but anything else is naff and should be seen as such.

We are supposed to be educating kids in school, what is this gift fest teaching them?