Embers and Ink - Blog — Thank You Teacher RSS

School's (nearly) out for summer and now comes the inevitable searching for gifts for your child's teacher... but STOP! I used to be a teaching assistant in a wonderful primary school, and I've got some insider knowledge from the staffroom for you: your child's teacher does not want another 'best teacher' mug...true fact! They are likely to get around 30 of these each year...with the best will in the world, there is just not enough space! So save your money and the planet's resources by following this pro-tip: All a teacher or teaching assistant really wants is a Thank You card that's been hand-written by your child. That's it! I've still got a drawer-full of all the cards I've been...

The end of the school year brings with it a whole range of emotions, not to mention a range of gifts for the teachers and teaching assistants. But do we ever stop to think about the environmental cost of those gifts? I used to be a teaching assistant in a primary school. When I was starting to go zero-waste, the end of the school year posed particular problems. Many of the gifts were plastic or plastic-wrapped, and were things I was trying to cut out of my life. But on the flip side they were also a heart-felt, so I respectfully took them and usually donated them to the charity shops. But when I started Embers and Ink, it got...