Tuesday 10 July 2012

Teachers' Gifts


My son's nursery school finishes for the summer at the end of this week and I've been having a big (probably unnecessary) dilemma about what to give his teachers as an end of term and end of year thank-you.

At Christmas time, one of the mums kindly organised a collection from all the other mums in the class and then got gift vouchers for each of the teachers. She even suggested how much we should donate. It was great, as I had no idea how these things work and she has an older child and was completely au fait with such matters. She has since left the country and this time there has been no discussion amongst the mums of end of term gifts. Some people have gone off on holiday already and so there are less mums around too.

I asked some of my friends for ideas and gift vouchers/cards seem the overiding choice. One friend who herself is a teacher said that vouchers are always nice to receive. A couple of friends had some lovely creative gift suggestions that they had done recently for their child's teachers. One is the apple pictured, wrapped in a clear bag and with a small glass jar containing caramel dipping sauce and walnuts. I've definitely left it too late to do anything like that....

What do you do when it comes to a gift for your child's teacher? Do you tend to give something individually or do you get a collection together with the other mums? What do you typically give?
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4 comments:

  1. Well... gosh. Where to start. I don't understand where this gift thing has come from. I don't remember it ever happening when I was young, yet as with everything there seems to be a whole industry around end of term and it's yet another expense that parents have to cope with and for no good reason.

    I myself am a teacher, although for big ones so you don't tend to get gifts. Indeed if you get a kind word it's a wonder (hehe). I've had thank you cards, which is always so lovely when they really don't have to. But at the end of the day I'm doing my job and it's what I'm paid to do. Okay, it's a hard job and the financial rewards aren't great (though it's FAR better than the average so certainly not complaining). I just think that gifts for the teacher should not be something that you have to do. And vouchers?!?! It's like giving teachers money. I would feel bad about accepting them, personally speaking.

    But none of that is helpful really is it, I think if a gift is given then something thoughtful, creative and small (!) like the jar idea is perfect and adequate and any teacher would I'm sure love to receive it.

    :)

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    Replies
    1. Great to have your input as a teacher! I too do not remember doing any presents for my teachers when I was a child. I think you're right that something thoughtful and creative is nice.

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    2. So what did you go with in the end? :)

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    3. I had three teachers to buy for - one main teacher of the class and two younger part-time teachers. As I had left it too late to do anything creative, I went to John Lewis and found a cute mug set that came with tea and cookies so I got one of those each for the two part-time teachers. For their main teacher, I got some babygrows (with a gift receipt) as she is expecting her first baby and I figured it's always nice to get baby gifts :-). I was happy with my purchases but plan to be more organised next time!

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Thank you for reading. I'd love to have your comments and thoughts!