Are You Buying Your Teacher A Gift?

It’s that time of year again when the talk of gifts for teachers once again rears it’s head. I’ve been loving the papers this weekend that have basically been reporting on the more elaborate of teacher gifts, which this year have included – bungee jumping, a mulberry bag and a horse (not sure I believe that one)!  

<From Not On The High Street.com>

Back in the real world I am assured by my friends who are teachers and nursery nurses that (1) they don’t expect gifts and (2) the gifts they are more likely to treasure are the heartfelt drawings and letters from their class. Which is good news if like me you always have no idea what to buy. This year we opted for a card and a key ring chosen by my 5 year old, as apparently keyrings are the equivalent of mulberry bags in my daughter’s class! Her thinking that less is more is backed up by a survey that reveals while 69% of parents buy teachers gifts, 50% spent less than £5.00 and 36% spend less than £10.00. And yes back in our day teacher’s didn’t get even gifts, so if you feel guilted into buying one, don’t because really teachers don’t expect it. And by the way if some do-gooder mother tries to rope you into giving X amount to a joint gift fund, feel free to say ‘get lost’. A mother at our school was ‘suggesting’ £15 per child so we could get the teacher ‘something decent’. Sorry but aside from being the opposite of personal, £15 is a lot of money and I’m sure even a small handmade card is ‘something decent’ to a teacher. Any how I’d be interested to here what, if anything you are doing on the teacher front so let me know.