On the scent of a teacher’s pet

Aschool in Oxfordshire has told parents not to spend more than £50 on end-of-term teacher presents. I suspect the staff are peeved. At Tatler, we campaigned on this issue, calling for a clampdown on Chanel and Prada presents for teachers. At one school, a staff member had apparently been offered the use of the family jet. It could fall foul of the Bribery Act, we said, and it put more pressure on parents already strapped by fees. Schools were livid. I’ve been researching the issue since my new novel is set in a posh London school and such presents are deemed a big perk of the job. In my school, a £900 tin of caviar is doled out by a Russian mother to one teacher at Christmas who later feeds it to his cat. All fictional, of course…