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

I’ve asked on the parent what’s app group if anyone has had a wbd voucher and everyone has said no. Another mum said she’ll mention it on Monday.

My kid's school never do dress up days either. They dont do world book day or Halloween or any of the charity days.

This year, for the first time, they said they were doing world book day and the kids could dress up. They announced with less than a week's notice. Because they never do them, no one had anything organised so we had less than a week to sort it out.

@BeforeGodAndAllTheFish

My kid's school never do dress up days either. They dont do world book day or Halloween or any of the charity days.

This year, for the first time, they said they were doing world book day and the kids could dress up. They announced with less than a week's notice. Because they never do them, no one had anything organised so we had less than a week to sort it out.

I don't think many schools would do Halloween- certainly not those that are inclusive of children of all faiths and non.

The school is right. It is another mad idea to annoy busy parents. Let the teachers make the costumes if it's so important.to participating schools.

@Viviennemary

The school is right. It is another mad idea to annoy busy parents. Let the teachers make the costumes if it's so important.to participating schools.

Absolutely. They should be handing out the vouchers though.

Our school does world book day but they keep it simple and it’s bedtime story theme & everyone goes to school in pjs.
However they don’t do Red Nose Day or children in need as the head prefers to support local charities with dress down day fundraisers.

@TheHoptimist

I'm in Scotland. Halloween is quite big here. Every other school in our town do halloween, and as far as I can tell from Facebook, most other schools do too.

I don't think many schools would do Halloween- certainly not those that are inclusive of children of all faiths and non

Why not? Halloween as it is celebrated today is a secular holiday.

I want to know what good a £1 book token would do for a family that would have to take a bus to town and then pay the rest of the price of a book. Then take the bus back home again...

To the OP - if you want to raise money for charity, start fundraising yourself. The beneficiary could be a school with very few books available in the classrooms.

Maybe find such a school and ask for donations of gently used or almost new books suitable for children.

Good. My children used to attend a wonderful school that is in a deprived, mainly council estate area. They never used to dress up for World Book Day, but they were all encouraged to take a book in instead. My younger daughter now attends a school in an area of more expensive housing and the amount of dressing up/charity contributions/non-uniform days is insane. It's costing me a fortune and I feel like I can't keep up.

@mathanxiety

I want to know what good a £1 book token would do for a family that would have to take a bus to town and then pay the rest of the price of a book. Then take the bus back home again...

To the OP - if you want to raise money for charity, start fundraising yourself. The beneficiary could be a school with very few books available in the classrooms.

Maybe find such a school and ask for donations of gently used or almost new books suitable for children.

You can get books for £1 ie the total value of the token. They have them in Asda.

@mathanxiety they produce WBD books that you get for the voucher without needing to pay anything else. It’s different ones each year: www.worldbookday.com/books/
I still have my WBD edition of Good Omens!

I think that's a real shame. WBD is one of the highlights of my DDs school year. She starts thinking about it months before the date and puts a lot of work into planning her costume - which does not involve purchasing an expensive costume from the supermarket. It's not just a dress up day, they do all the celebrating book events - book fairs, talking and writing about books, author visits etc but she also hugely enjoys the dress up element and it would be a real shame if the school stopped doing this. Fortunately the whole school enters the spirit of the day and makes a big deal of it, so this is unlikely to happen, but I'm saddened to hear that there are some schools which don't do WBD.

@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

Catholic school OP?

@Halllyup17

Good. My children used to attend a wonderful school that is in a deprived, mainly council estate area. They never used to dress up for World Book Day, but they were all encouraged to take a book in instead. My younger daughter now attends a school in an area of more expensive housing and the amount of dressing up/charity contributions/non-uniform days is insane. It's costing me a fortune and I feel like I can't keep up.

eBay my friend!

mathanxiety you can get the £1 especially published WBD books from major supermarkets so the vast majority of children in the UK will have access to get hold of one. These books cost £1 so with the voucher they are free.

My school don't dress up for WBD but they do other activities such as webinars with authors, storytelling, the focus is on books.

mathanxiety here is this years selection of £1 books. I actually paid £1 for the Sophie Mackenzie one because I like her books but I am too grown up now to get a voucher.

Sounds like a sensible school. I wish more schools did this type of povity proofing.

@Bibbitybobbityboo86

It doesn’t have to cost money

Wear your pjs to school
Odd socks day
Crazy hair day
Not everything costs money

A colleague's DD had a wear your pjs to school day, with a £1 donation tot he charity. Her mum went out and spent £12 on new pjs. I did say the charity would have benefitted from the £12 but that didn't go down well.

Schools really can’t win can they…

Some children don't have pj's.

My kids school doesn't do anything for it either, just gives out the voucher. I find it a massive relief and so does every other parent I've spoken to. No CIN or RND either thank God.

They are very sensitive to the fact that many of the parents in the school would struggle to afford these things. If people want to get involved they can do it themselves.

There is usually something for Halloween and Christmas, but with no pressure to dress up and Christmas jumpers etc are available from the school office.

At my kids school it was dress up or dress up a vegetable. I thought dressing up a vegetable sounded like hard work for the parents. My son is only in nursery so I just sent him in with a book and related toy (not what they asked for!)

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

I think we need to phase out the buying tat in school for landfill side of these days (e.g. red noses, snap bands, jelly bracelets, headbands etc all designed to never be worn after the one day). Lots of other things they could do of course that don't involve such single use plastic. Our school asked for coppers to make a line around the playground and let the kids lay them out which was sweet (one class at a time so I would assume the teacher would pool the class money so all kids would be involved in laying it out.

I’ve heard of two schools that just get kids to come in pyjamas and bring a book they like, for World Book Day.
V good idea IMO. No costume stress or expense.