Christmas presents for teachers: WhatsApp groups and bank details have gone too far

As in all areas of life, the pandemic hastened technology and now parents can enjoy a constant stream of emails, newsletters, and app alerts throughout the day - many bring useful information but reading them all is a full-time job in itself. And on top of this official school communication, brace yourself of that most dreaded of forums - the parents’ WhatsApp group. And while I say parents, with dads allowed access, this really is the stomping ground of the mothers and the breeding ground of both panicked headless chicken - “Is it the school trip today?” - last-minute messages and also gleaming, shameless one-upmumship. And it’s here that the desire to impress has really taken over at Christmas.

The days of a box of chocolates and a card for a teacher are, in the main, long gone. No, now there are organised collections for every teacher and teaching assistant, on top of additional online collections to buy flowers for the teachers as a thank-you for organising the nativity play. After the list of names of children whose parents had chipped into the group collection was pasted into the WhatsApp group, those of us who were going for the “box of Matchmakers and a handwritten card” approach felt very much like we were on the naughty/mean list. 

So thank god for Martin Lewis putting his head above the parapet and pointing out that not everyone can afford the, as he put it, “tit for tat” present giving. Can everyone just calm down, please? And don't get me started on the creeping trend towards buying Easter eggs, either.

But there’s another thing that annoys me about this. I think teachers do a great and a very hard job, and I’m not saying they should be taken for granted or not thanked… not at all. 

But one of the good things about giving a gift to a child’s teacher is that the child should understand that it is a gesture that they should learn to make - that to give, whatever size the present, is a laudable action. They do not learn about the joy of giving by their parents transferring a tenner on a banking app and then posting a message on a 60-person WhatsApp group to swank. When it comes to school Christmas presents, be less gold, frankincense and myrrh and more the payoff line from In The Bleak Midwinter.