Daughters school not doing world book day

[Bibbitybobbityboo86]

So my daughters school never do world book day - AIBU to be disappointed?
I imagine some parents will be relieved but my daughter gets upset when she sees the costumes in Sainsbury’s or sees other kids in their costumes.

It’s not just world book day- it’s also children in need & Red Nose Day. The school won’t do anything in fact none of it even gets mentioned - it’s like it’s not happening.

Would you feel disappointed?

WIBU for me to contact the head teacher and ask why? I don’t want to be that parent

I’ve mentioned it to other parents and they agree and say it’s a shame but they don’t seem as bothered by it as me

Good on the school. I thinks it's madness that schools think that at a time parents are being told they won't be able to afford to heat their houses, that food prices are inflating at a rate they can't keep up with and that just after covid there is talk of WW3 that we should set some money and time aside to make costumes for an event that has piss all to do with books. Want to celebrate books? Do a book swap, have someone come in and read books, have the kids take in their own books. But for the love of God leave us parents alone!

@Bibbitybobbityboo86

I see everyone’s point actually about wbd

What about comic relief and children in need? Surely raising money for charity should be encouraged?

Depends on the community. Our school try to keep fundraising to a minimum as so many families in the local community are living in poverty. The staff and PTA do additional events/collections to directly support our families who need it rather than the big national events.

@ReflectiveJournal

If you had sat in my classroom yesterday and seen the two 8 year olds in tears because their parents couldn't get them costumes for various reasons, you'd happily bin it too. My school does a brilliant job with it and it is truly a special day for (most of) the children. I still hate it.

Take responsibility at home if she wants to dress up. Share books, help her research interesting authors, make it a family thing.

That’s heart breaking

Yes we will do that- we will choose a new book at the shop tomorrow. We enjoy reading lots at home so agree we can do things at home to celebrate wbd

It’s better for the parents if schools don’t do it, but the kids love it doing those things, so it’s better for them if they do.

Not if the kids end up embarrassed when comparing to classmates.

I wish our school was like that. Instead, ours are obsessed with dressing up days and they have quite strict rules aswell. Some children are made to change out of their outfit into spare uniform if their costume doesn't meet the criteria.

You are not a jerk - until you work in a school/ are among parents in these situations sometimes it's not obvious why schools choose to not take part in events such as WBD.
I work in a school and we have dressed up some years, and other times not. It's a really hard balance between making the children and parents happy, whilst also making sure we don't put pressure on families who struggle money wise and don't want to feel embarrassed or like they are letting their children down.
Agreed with one of the comments above - it really highlights who is struggling and which children are from hard up families. I've had many children over the years turn up not in costumes and feel humiliated because their parent hasn't remembered (despite warnings for months on end).
Such a tricky balance nowadays and sadly we can't please everyone 😞

If it bothers you, find out if they have a PTA or Friends of and see if you can get involved that way? I say this as a chair of the PTA, it's very easy to think what a school should be doing, but putting it into action is a whole other thing.

I would ask about the £1 vouchers though. Say you saw the bookstand with the books on in the bookshop and were curious why the school didn't give out the vouchers.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Good for them. I'd like to see research that shows any educational benefit from these dress up days.

Life is about more than just education. Fun is important, especially for kids.

My son’s school celebrated wbd by reading and talking about their favourite books and what they like to read. No dressing up. When it is a dressing up day, the children in foster homes and from refugee families are still in uniform. There’s also those on free school meals etc. It’s an opportunity for those groups to yet again feel excluded and “other”.

Dd went a a lower school
New headteacher said WBD would be bring a book in. And only 1 outside charity fundraiser a year. The pta did a few things to raise money as well.
Fab

The vouchers are provided by the National Books Trust Ltd so if the school didn't distribute them I would contact them and ask if the school should have received them.

All a bit parsimonious. I would hate this.

@Bibbitybobbityboo86

I obviously live in a different world to some Parents and I’m obviously ignorant to other peoples problems. Fair enough - I just have memories of doing fun things at school and I imagined my childs school would do the same

I don't recall the constant bloody things that are in the school diary these days - wear odd socks, wear green, own clothes day every 5 bleeding minutes for £1 (who has change these days!), then world book day, Xmas jumper day and the list goes on

We had own clothes day at the end of the school year and I think a school fete and that was it

The issues around poverty should be enough to stop dressing up in schools on their own, but there are other reasons too. It’s a nightmare for children with sensory issues, those who struggle with changes in routine and those who struggle to feel they fit in. Dressing up may look fun for photos, but there are always children in tears at one point or another through the day.
I’d also say that for book day, although the request is usually a costume related to your favourite book, 90% of the children have a costume chosen for a different reason (what we had in the house, what was in Tesco, what happened to have Prime delivery) so it’s a terrible way to actually celebrate and discuss favourite books.

Surely schools have to show some community engagement.
Charity days and world book day are a way to do this

Well done to the OPs school for not doing this it creates undue pressure to conform.

I'm not sure what community engagement it creates it doesn't.

I don't recall the constant bloody things that are in the school diary these days - wear odd socks, wear green
What I hated was the 'wear something (colour) you already have, no need to buy anything' when your child only owns clothes in a few colours they like. DS had one orange t-shirt then everything else was blue/green/grey. So 'wear yellow' was orange 'wear red' was orange, 'wear purple' was blue!

I’m an English teacher and I can hands down say dressing up for WBD has no impact on improving children’s literacy or reading skills. As PP said, behaviour (and thus learning) deteriorates on non-uniform day.

Activities to encourage and promote reading - all fine. Dressing up just equals a headache for many parents and children.

Pre-Covid community engagement in schools around here involved:

litter picking popular walkways
helping out at local care home (making drinks, answering phone, singing etc)
planting in community flower boxes
representing school at Christmas Lights turn on/remembrance events
creating posters in school to celebrate Christmas etc to go on display at local Co-Op store
working with a local artist to create a mural

• none of which involved costs for pupils/parents

I'd be bloody ecstatic personally 🤣

The school sounds crap to be honest.

Some of the schools in our area, the majority of pupils come from deprived backgrounds with far fewer coming from families with any sort of disposable income. They very rarely do anything to cost money because some families literally struggle to afford to eat. Could that be the case in your area? The ideas you mentioned, surely to have any value the pupils would have to make a donation? It really is too much for families on the breadline/in poverty and I’m surprised that you don’t realise that. Even if only a small proportion of the school is affected, it’s a real shame to exclude or inflight their situation. In fact it’s unnecessary.

Are you 100% sure they do absolutely nothing? I’d contact the school to make sure.

You’re not unreasonable about dressing up though. I’ve written about this before but in our school we have children who only have their school uniform that we insist they buy, so it’s not uncommon to see kids in their school jumpers on weekends. So to insist on a completely pointless uniform and then tell them to wear other clothes for totally arbitrary reasons absolutely infuriates me.

Having watched WBD for a few years, it seems to me that the point of it is often missed. The 'dress up like a character from your favourite book' idea is sweet. But actually doing that is quite hard for many books. So people go down alternative routes of either buying one of the 10 different supermarket costumes available or seeing what outfit they have and then finding a book to match. So you get a classroom of Elsas etc which don't really relate to high quality children's books. The book and reading focus is lost. And that's all before we come on to the issue of cost.

Our school does themed dress up days every term related to the topic that the children are studying. They seem to have dialled that back a bit by making the clothes options broader to ensure parents don't have to buy anything. I'm really grateful for that as the requests were becoming stupid and weren't even consistent from year to year. I'd save DD1's Egyptian costume, only to find DD2 needed an Anglo Saxon costume instead.

Even odd socks days can be tricky. I thought I was a genius when I bought DD2 entirely matching out of school socks - no more hunting for pairs. She had to wear one school sock that day as she doesn't own odd socks.

Our school did a pyjamas day for WBD a few years ago & I mentioned to another Mum what a good idea, no costumes etc & she said she'd had to go & buy pyjamas as her kids ones were a bit tatty & she didn't want anyone judging her/them. I hadn't thought of that.

This year our school did celebrate WBD but didn't put any stipulations on costumes & have told us that they're not selling red nose but kids can have a 'Bad Hair Day' & to make a donation if they like but it's completely optional.

I think there's a fine line between having fun days for the kids & not singling anyone out whose families are struggling.