My Dad is a primary school teacher so the end of term was always a fun time in our house. Partly as we got to have him home with us for the holidays, but mainly because sometimes he would also bring home the school’s BBC computer and my sister and I could play Malory Towers. Malory Towers was the very height of technological sophistication – a text based murder mystery where you had to type in things like ‘go to garden’ and in return would get such edge-of-your seat replies as ‘the gardener is here, do you want to talk to him?’
Nail biting stuff.
What was also quite fun was getting to see all the gifts he brought home at the end of the summer term. I would say it was pretty much a fifty-fifty split between edible things like chocolate oranges and tacky gifts emblazoned with ‘World’s Best Teacher!’ – mugs, coasters, that sort of thing.
Buying a gift for a teacher is really hard though, and generally fairly low down on a parent’s list of priorities, so you can see why as a teacher you might end up with one or two more boxes of Toffifee than you might normally buy for yourself. (Does anyone ever buy Toffifee for themselves?)
It won’t come as a surprise to regular readers that I am normally a typical Toffifee parent, but this year I am ahead of the game. Oh yes, I am already in possession of what could possibly be the coolest teacher gift I have ever seen. It’s Belle’s last term in primary school, so about time I did something right.
For Belle’s teacher this year we have this personalised notebook from James Ellis:
It’s a really lovely site for gifts generally, and you can personalise all kinds of different notebook designs and invitations. At around £10 each they’re a little higher budget than a chocolate orange but then I live in a bit of a yummy mummy part of Bristol so reckon £10 is about right. They are excellent quality and come on, who doesn’t love a notebook?
We chose this one as Belle’s teacher is a really keen cyclist but there are masses of different options. One of my favourites is the typewriter:
There is one tiny issue. I have a feeling that in our class we all chip in for one big present and that actually what I should have done is give one of the other parents a fiver.
Damn.
What do you buy your teachers at the end of term? Is it every man for himself or to you have a class whip-round?
I was sent this notebook for the purposes of this review. I was still thinking ahead though. It definitely still counts as me being a Good Parent. Apart from the class collection bit. Ignore that.
Last year (for my daughter’s first year at school) I bought a gift from Kindred Rose (https://www.facebook.com/kindredrosedesign) – it was a magnetic apple in a box that said Thank You Miss Norris! This year she’s doing a Superman sign and the box says: Thank you for being super! I think they’re lush
x
They look really cool! I’ve never seen a magnetic apple before!
Oh my… Malory Towers. There was a game we used to play at school, it was on a black screen, like a DOS screen and had questions like that. You had to solve puzzles, all I can remember was there was one about a dodecahedron. Is that Malory Towers? I hope so, it’s bugged me for years!
Love the idea of these notebooks. I hadn’t even thought about end of year gifts, being Littlebit’s first year (and only half a year at that) at Playschool. Thanks for the reminder xxx
I don’t remember a dodecahedron to be honest. It was more like Cluedo where you had to interview people, wait for their alibis not to match up, and then solve the crime!
Oh these notebooks are such a fab idea!
They’re gorgeous aren’t they? I think they are such a lovely change for the usual tat!
I asked my daughter what her teacher liked doing outside school and she said he was a diver. She meant the scuba kind, but its too late. I’ve got an image of him doing Tom Daley style flips in Tom Daley style speedos. Not an image you need of your child’s teacher
Well there you go then – speedos it is :-)
Oh Kath! Only just read this comment and now I@M picturing him in speedos – WRONGNESS!!
Love these notebook ideas – am going to order one for the teacher and classroom assistant now.
So glad you liked them! It’s really nice when I have a product to write about that I really do believe is lush!
I have been shopping around for something to give to my son’s TA as she has been super with him. These notebooks are a good idea.
They’re nice because they are pretty AND useful – double points!
Those notebooks (and their site) are gorgeous.
You sound very organised. I like the idea of personal instead of a whip round xx
I do think a personal gift is nicer, although I can see how for busy parents a whip round saves time and effort. I just think it’s nice for each child to put a bit of thought into it.
That’s the first time in eons I’ve thought about Malory Towers. Wasn’t it great back then??
Ah yes, without the ‘joys’ of social media, when to contact someone you actually had to call them on a landline! Seems madness now to think you couldn’t just immediately contact someone wherever you both were.
Talking as a LSA. It’s nice to get presents. Usually I find I get more presents from children I haven’t spent all year working with though. I dislike getting joint presents with the teacher and other staff in the class cos how do you split it? We’ve had cheese, wine, plants etc bought as a joint present :-( Maybe parents getting together and buying individual vouchers/gift cards would be much better.
I realise some of our parents have 3 or 4 or more children in school and so a box of maltesers is all they can afford per person but if it was a joint present without the ‘give x amount’ the out come would be so much more appealing.
Yes, I totally agree, I always think it’s weird when parents give a bottle of wine as a gift for all the staff in a classroom – what are you meant to do, crack it open right there and all take a swig?