to think that teachers should be a bit more bloody creative about Red Nose Day

[radiohelen]

I've been past four schools today and at all of them the kids are wearing their pyjamas to school... doing something funny for money! I think not.
Plus I was talking to a friend who said she'd had to go and buy new pyjamas for the occasion because her sons are all a bit small and while that's fine for at home it's not fine to send them to school in. Extra cost for her and then she had the nightmare of persuading her boy to wear pants under pyjamas... "you don't wear pants AND pyjamas mummy".
It sounds like a nightmare...
What about a gurnathon? A giant jelly contest? Making a funny black and white film. Writing an essay in alphabetti spaghetti. This is just off the top of my admittedly weird head....

YANBU. Parents have enough to do without trying to think of something creative themselves.

At our school the children and staff put on a talent show, the staff making complete idiots of themselves in the process. That only took up an hour and a half. I am really hacked off that they put so much time and energy over the last few days into the talent show that the rest of the day was completely unfunny. They had plenty of time to plan an alphabetti spaghetti essay session for 200 infants in my book.

I was quite relived dc's schools played it down this year. We only had fancy dress for another reason recently. There's only so much of it I can manage.

And yes in the past when it's been 'wear your pyjamas' day I've had to go and buy new ones Tbh it all gets a bit much.

OOH at our school 5 of the male teachers did a spoof "fake that" video! I was PMSL!!! Is that original enough for the OP? Everyone came in red and some students chose to come in pyjamas. The kids really enjoyed it and I hope we raised plenty of money. That is the most important thing. Oh and the kids continued to get their education too, so bonus all round. OP, YABVU.

Our school completely ignored red nose day today, according to them they didn't want to keep pressurising the parents to hand over money keep it for school fundraisers even red noses were banned, bit mean really.

Teachers work hard enough without having to be creative fundraisers too. Wearing pyjamas is fun for the children so why not? Maybe you should put your massive fundraising expertise to good use and help the school out instead of moaning on here.

What about a gurnathon? A giant jelly contest? Making a funny black and white film. Writing an essay in alphabetti spaghetti.

Fucking hell, is this a joke????

Comic Relief-what a heap of steaming poo.

YABU!

We agreed that since we all dressed up for World Book Day a couple of weeks ago, it was a bit much to go all out again so soon. So we had a mufti and crazy hair day. Creative? No. Funny, a bit. Raised money? Yep.

we had a crazy hair day with a cake sale. job done, smiles all round.

It's not a bloody competition!

DD had to wear pjamas...tbh that was more than enough work for me, i now have to soak and scrub the bottoms as its raining here!

And I am amazed the TA came in her PJs I think that was beyond the call of duty!

I dont even really support comic relief that much as a charity so i wouldnt be too pleased with the alphabet spaghetti idea

I've got a better idea - take Comic Relief OUT of school.

We raised a couple of £k - sponge the teacher, crossbar challenge, bun sales, mufti day.

Half of that was the non-uniform. It really is the easiest way to part kids from their cash for charity. YABU - honestly, we're quite busy!

Mind you, I let year 10 bribe me with a CR whipround - 'I'm going to teach the use of the semicolon at you lot until there's a tenner in this mug, & then you can watch a video...'

Is that creative?

My kids had to be topsy turvey. My ds2 wore a long curly girly red wig with a painted on beard and lipstick. He wore a dress and boots. He had a fab day and the teacher said he was her favourite.

DS1 wore pants on his head as did all his friends.

DS3 refused to wear anything unusual whatsoever. He was the only one in school unifrom. We sent him in with a bag of red stuff in case he changed his mind but he held firm. Maybe it's because when he went as Tom from Beast Quest the teacher immediately confiscated his sword and specially made sheild.

DD1's school did nothing. In fact her form teacher complained about how he hated red nose day cos everyone flicks through the sad bits and just watches the comedy. He also made people take off their red noses.

At our school we asked the children to come dressed as monsters and some of the parents asked if they could wear pyjamas instead because they didn't want to have to bother with costumes. All it took was a bit of face paint...

A lot of the staff dressed up too - one of the TAs was completely green and a Year 5 teacher was a mummy, and had to go out to Boots half-wrapped in bandages to buy some more because she'd underestimated how much she would need. That's dedication.

We also raffled the chance to be HeadTeacher and Deputy Head for the day - the winning pair had to do assembly and various other jobs, like deciding how to spend some of the school council's money, while the Head and Deputy went into their classes and misbehaved...

I'm not a fancy dress type of a person at all but I don't want to be a misery guts when other people are enjoying themselves and doing something fun. I can't help feeling a right charlie in fancy dress.

Yesterday, ds and dd wore green for St patricks day, and because they are having a green (eco) week.Tied in nicely with th e year 6 residential trip to Ireland, too. We donated to that to raise money for gardening equipment.

Today, they could donate and wear a nose/spray their hair/or wear a red accessory. DD wore red tights, DS just had his nose (although claimed he was wearing red underpants!)

Can't afford any more non-uniform days for awhile- but they are for a good cause, and the teachers always join in.

It is an easy and effective way of raising money, imo. I would HATE to get involved in making jelly![like an easy life emoticon]

So far this month we have had World Book Day (she dressed as a witch) today - Crazy Hair, and on Monday it is a very impromptu Non-uniform day for Save The Children Japan Earthquake fund. I am glad we are not too inventive - just getting these things organised is bad enough

I must admit, though, that if they wore pyjamas, i probably would have to get new ones- ds's are all a bit short in the leg.
He also looks too skinny in his pj's- his school uniform makes him look a bit more padded

Will MNHQ delete me if I ask the OP to rearrange a well-known phrase, where one of the words is 'off?'

I speak as someone who's had, in recent weeks, to try to teach kids dressed up for World Book Day, plus another fund-raising day, plus Comic Relief today. None of them thinks they need to do any work on dress-up days.

But worse than that, our staff have just put in 12 long days on the trot as OfSTED put in an appearance this week, putting paid to everyone's weekend last week.

So, frankly, my school is bloody lucky I even crawled out of my sick bed this morning, so forget arsing around being "funny." I don't feel funny. I'm knackered. But I still found something red to wear today, and planned some additional extra-curricular things to do on top of our usual stuff.

Bah!

Another teacher who wants to add a comment like the one clam described in her first sentence.

We had a 'wear something funny' day - it came straight on the back of two parents' evenings from 3.50 to 6.30, added to full teaching days from 8a.m. I wore pyjamas because I was too knackered to think of anything else. And taught proper lessons all day (granted, PE did become Sumo Sock Wrestling).

I don't care if you think that's boring.

Blimey! It's good to see there clearly are some people who have had great fun with Red Nose day. Hopefully you raised loads of cash for Comic Relief and had a brilliant time doing whatever you chose to do.
I'm sorry that the teachers on here seem to find their work so stultifying.
Clam if you read your comments above in the cold light of day maybe it will give you some insight about your chosen path.
For the record I am not a teacher. I do not expect any one person in an organisation to come up with creative and imaginative solutions. It is always a team effort. Some people are better at the creative stuff than others. I have worked in situations where you have to motivate a large number of people to get excited about something that is not necessarily that exciting... I've had to create excitement out of nothing, with no budget while still taking care of business. It also involved me starting work at 5am and often not finishing until 5pm the same day, working nights and weekends. I know about tired. I appreciate this stuff is not easy.
Surely finding creative ways to include "water cooler" events in teaching so kids get a holistic education is what teachers do.
If any human being is so jaded and disillusioned by their work that they can barely function then perhaps they need to consider why they got into it in the first place - especially when they have the privilege and challenge of shaping young minds.