FFS just seen a text instructing my dc to 'be spotty and bake a cake' on Friday

[stripystars]

It came earlier today, not that it would have helped had I seen it earlier. So that's 2.5 days notice to come up with a costume. They have nothing spotty (stripes we have aplenty but no spots). I work f/t and we don't get in until 6 both nights and ds has cubs on one of the nights too. I also have work to do once they are in bed.

Why do schools fucking do this? It's hard enough, especially when you work and are a lp. Happy to support charities, but no time to conjure up spots and cakes midweek.

When schools say wear old clothes what they mean is wear clothes that you don't mind getting ruined. They don't give a shit about the age of the clothes. They are simply warning that they might get paint on.

Also, do you know who gives the least shits out of all the shits in the whole world about the spot distribution/cake cost/donation/whether your child has a £15 Xmas jumper or a piece of tinsel/old clothes/new clothes/medium age clothes/wackiness of clothes or hair/onsies/normal school uniform? Yes. Your child's teacher. As long as they have a child turn up on time and not riddled with contagious diseases, fed, watered, rested and happy about the fact they haven't had their mum moan at/near them about something that the school has required for their enjoyment and to raise money for charity then they are on their way to job satisfaction.

Don't make these things more than they need to be.

I've got off lightly with my twins' school. They just have to wear something yellow or with a bit of yellow on and bring in £1.
My girls don't actually own anything yellow that's suitable for this weather so because I happened to be in the supermarket yesterday I got them a couple of brilliantly tacky diamanté pudsey brooches to wear.
The staff are doing a school bake off where they all compete to make the best cake and parents can pop in after school starts to buy some cake and then cast a vote as to which was the best looking and best tasting cake and it was all about so you didn't just pick your favourite member of staff!
I was very impressed with the level of baking skills last year

I was going to start a thread about this. The DC have nothing spotty, Sainsbury's have a spotty skirt for £5 which I can't afford, and nothing for boys. Stickers may be the way to go!

Tired. You say you got off lightly. Others would write about the same school like this:

My child's school has asked us to wear something yellow and bring £1. Don't they know I've got twins. That's £2 for me. Plus I don't have any yellow stuff so I've had to waste money on some fucking tacky shit that they won't use again. What a waste of the world's resources. Plus they expect us to come and vote on some cakes that staff have made after school starts. Don't they know I have stuff to do. They just expect me to drop everything to buy cake I don't even want.

I bought my kids pudsey t-shirts at Asda, they were £3 & I bought them big so they'll do for next year. Our school said spots, but like a pp said you can't get spots for boys & DD will only wear "boys" clothes too. Luckily no cakes for us, although I usually get a Betty Crocker pack of same kind. Nothing turns me off crafting & baking more than being instructed to craft & bake!

& I once sent ds1 in uniform on a non uniform day. The horror of seeing more & more children in home clothes and realising :-( I didn't have time to go back home, so wrestled him into his musty PE kit & cried on the way to work.

all schools support children in need

Why do people on MN make statements that they cannot know are true?

My son's school is NOT supporting it. I suspect many other schools are not supporting either, because they've supported other good causes.

Can a teacher come on here and explain to us why schools like dressing up days so much - and why in so many cases they give so little notice? And why they are more or less compulsory although many kids don't like dressing up? Fortunately my sons' infant and junior schools were quite good about this and we generally had 3-4 weeks notice at worst.

They do it because despite them working full time we, as mothers, are supposed to be sitting at home waiting for something like this to give us something to do

Tee hee, so true.

I understand how you feel and the short notice is not ideal but all schools support children in need.. It's not like it's come out of the blue

Worked in education for years in a variety of schools. Not all schools support Children in Need, no.

We got told yesterday but the school have said they will have stickers and face paints for those children who don't own anything spotty. We are always told not to buy anything specifically for dressing up days. Luckily the DTs do have spotty t shirts so that's what they are wearing.

we have wear something spotty this week, own clothes (and bring raffle/tombola prize donation) next week, and jumper day a fortnight later.

I have blue hair spray. my boys can have spotty hair on friday.

purple see previous post from moo

For teachers it's a day of lost learning and moaning parents.

It's often last minute because we've just finished harvest, remembrance, anti bullying, parents' evening etc etc and had two mins to organise CIN on top of our actual work of you know, teaching.

Our school is yellow or spotty. Luckily DS owns a yellow hoodie anyway and I remember seeing people with spot stickers on their jumpers last year so I got some in town yesterday.

DS is generally uncomfortable with dress-up days. He's ok with general mufti but costume or dress instructions just make him anxious that he's going to look a fool, or that others will all be still in uniform, or that he won't have the same as others...

I'm giving him the option of wearing school trousers and plain polo shirt with his yellow hoodie and his school jumper in his bag if it all gets too much for him.

Dressing up days are supposed to be a bit of fun, an out of the ordinary day.
You don't have to do it. Many children don't, and still turn up in uniform, or just wear ordinary clothes.
You'd soon complain if the children did nothing interesting.

From school's point of view, dressing up days are a pain, because common sense seems to go out of the window, the children are hyper, and there is always the donation money losses.
(20p for a bun, and people send in ££££'s...then get annoyed when we say it is one bun per child ( or whatever)....no you can't buy one for your baby brother, grandma, long lost cousin You've lost your money?...well of course I will replace it with 20p from my own purse!)

My son's school is NOT supporting it

Well I apologise. Because I received a text from my son's school today to say that they are suppporting CiN (last minute decision, obviously) and are having a mufti/non-uniform day. Kids pay £1 for not wearing uniform.

But at least there is no dressing up.

You don't have to do it.

Try telling that to my dc!

I bought DS1 (11) a dalmatian outfit from Amazon, about £12 including musical bow tie and nose for next day delivery. That £12 is worth every penny to save me fannying about sticking and gluing all sorts of stuff together at midnight on Thursday.

If dressing up is a suitable thing for school, then make it a lesson and do it at school. If it's too much hassle for teachers and there's no budget for it, then don't do it at school. If it's too much hassle for teachers and there's no budget for it, then the school should ask itself whether it might in fact be too much hassle for parents and that the parents don't have a budget for it either.

IMO this sort of thing is an adult's idea of what children like. As a parent and as a teaching assistant, my experience of it was that every child who found school challenging found these days twice as challenging, and children who liked school would rather have been doing a spelling test than this.

Your post has just reminded me that my kids are meant to be spotty tomorrow (inservice Friday). Oops. Better get thinking cap on!

Cheap, cheerful and fun solution .....

Find a really old T shirt of yours or theirs.
Dig out the collection of tired nail varnish from every drawer / the fridge
Cover table in News paper
Get kids to draw spots on shirt in nail varnish
Leave to dry
Wear to school

Our school is fab for stuff like this. Usually at least a weeks notice and more than one option so for example because it's children in need and anti bullying week they can come in spots or as a superhero or both.
For world book day it was any character or in your pyjamas etc.
Fundraisers are always very cheap and the food is nice. Makes me so grateful when I read threads like this

Our school generally gives out all the non-uniform dates at the start of term, though CiN we only got 10 days' notice.
We also have own trousers on the same day every week, and on all the non-uniform days at least half the children are in uniform.
I wouldn't worry about it.

Oh and also most of our non-uniform days are donations for hamper/raffle etc. So often you can get away with something really cheap (sometimes even something you had at home anyway).
Something green for a hamper was a challenge, though eventually I found some 79p mint chocolates in Home Bargains.

Ours have said spotty or bright clothes, so we can manage both of those, DD has some spotty/dotty tops and DS has a couple of bright t-shirts.

To be fair we got a weeks notice! Two cheap Tesco tshirts and some colouring pens later and we are sorted!