It’s that time of year again …

End-of-term gifts can be a minefield for parents. How much do you contribute to the class collection? What do you do about the parent who doesn't chip in but shares the glory of the big presentation? Which gifts will teachers really, really love?

With term coming to an end, we thought you might like a few ideas. So we asked six teachers about the gifts they get, and the ones they really love!

1) A box of misshapen biscuits with a note reading "I baked them myself Miss" will have your child's teacher gushing with praise... even if she doesn’t actually eat them, chances are she'll still appreciate the sentiment though.

2) A group-effort to gather pictures and notes from the whole class in a scrapbook of your year together takes some organising but is bound to bring a tear to any teacher's eye. 

3) If you’re in a hurry, you can't usually go wrong with chocolates. They’re not very imaginative and unlikely to be the gift Sir or Miss remembers ten years later, but it's a pretty safe bet. One tip: either hand them over personally or make sure your child does it at the start of the final day – two of the teachers we talked to told sad tales of melted Miniature Heroes…

4) Think outside the box. A donation to Oxfam Unwrapped in your class teacher's name will fund the training of a teacher or pay for school supplies in countries where it's most needed.

5) A nice bottle of wine can be very well received indeed. However, you need to be a bit cautious and do your research. Presenting a bottle of Pinot Grigio to someone whose religion bans drinking – or who is halfway through the Alcoholic’s Anonymous programme - can be very insensitive and upsetting. If you do go down the bottle-of-booze route, get your child to design a label to stick over the original one – it’s nice a personal touch. 

6) The "Teacher's Survival Kit" is a cute idea and sure to raise a smile. Contents include a pencil "To help 'write' their wrongs" and marbles "For when you lose yours".

7) Gift cards – four of our six teachers told us these are what they secretly prefer. Top favourites among our panel were M&S, John Lewis, Amazon and (for the youngest member) iTunes.

8) A personalised pencil case filled with pencils embossed with the teacher's name is both thoughtful and useful. We love this one from Not On The High Street.

9) A book! All of the teachers we talked to are avid readers who only really have time to read in the school holidays - so there’s a good chance this will go down very well indeed. Buying books for teachers can be tricky, though, so go for something quirky or original. Better still, go down the gift card route: Waterstones, WH Smith or - best of all - tokens for your local independent bookshop.

10) Believe it or not, the hands-down favourite gift among our panel won't cost you more than a couple of quid. Almost every teacher we asked agreed that their most treasured gifts are: cards with a thoughtful message... the best present is really knowing you made a difference to someone in your class’.