Well - I’m not sure how the Education thing works, so I’m going to take it on faith that the lucky Christmas recipient is eligible 
I’m guessing the USB stick will be included but maybe you should check.
Assuming it hasn’t already been registered - and if the retailer is legit then it won’t have been…you will get the latest version when you activate the licence. That allows you to run any version UP TO v11.
Registering is very simple
Just install version 11 - no reason to go to 10.5 or 10