Nom nom! Can I teach your child, please?

I think I could write the chapter of a book on the subject of gifts for teachers. Personally, over the years and through several countries, I have received gifts ranging from meal vouchers, a lollipop, wine, 7.5 metres of beautiful Thai silk, book tokens, sports shop tokens, a cookie jar with hand prints of the whole class in the glaze, chocolates, scarves, photograph frames, perfume and other cosmetics, boxed fluffy towels, simple homemade Xmas cards made by children with Mum or Dad helping, pens, ornaments, picture frames, a hug, pot plants, a smile, coffee mugs, flowers, a thankyou. All are equally appreciated by me and I know most colleagues feel the same.

I once taught with a male colleague who was given a leather jacket (gulp!) but tend to think a more suitable gift for a male teacher would be a bottle of wine, or a book token.

I have lived in one country where there was a custom ( firmly resisted at my school) to give teachers and university lecturers a gift BEFORE exam time. In the case of uni, I was told by one of the students that there was always a class representative who collected the money, to pass on to the examiner, along with the list of who had donated As I said, I could write a chapter.....

As a parent, I liked to give my children's class teacher something to acknowledge and in appreciation of the time they had spent with my children. At high school level where there were many subject teachers, and the effort of teachers seemed far more variable, I occassionally sent flowers or a thankyou note when it was least expected.

Now, about those mince pies or the homemade lemon curd .....