World Book Day

[empee47]

AIBU to say that World Book Day is pointless? Its main purpose is to encourage a love of reading - which I can’t argue with at all - but it’s become all about the costume and nothing about the book. It doesn’t appear to encourage reluctant readers at all. The main focus is now the costume - I think we should be moving away from so much focus on appearance. It causes stress and anxiety for parents and children alike and disengagement from the actual purpose of enjoying a book. Particularly interested in teachers’ views.

Completely agree. One of my friends kids is going as one of the K-pop demon hunters!

It’s so rubbish. My child always wants to go as one of his best dressing outfits, and we find ourselves scrabbling around trying to find a book that matches. It’s shite.

God I hated world book day. Eventually mine just used to pick a book where the characters wore t shirts and jeans 😆 it wouldn’t have been so bad if the school didn’t have a million other dress up days to contend with.

Ita a bit of fun and most kids love dressing up. Schools often offer free costumes now if people donate them and there is loads of stuff you can make for free. My daughter is going as the naughtiest girl at school, shes nabbed her big brothers blazer and one of my handbags. She's really excited.
But its not compulsory so if kids dont want to be involved they don't have to

Honestly its completely up to you/your kids how much it is to do with books. It can be as easy as wearing a dressing gown and carrying a favourite book (ready for bedtime reading).
It doesn't need to be KPop/celebrity/store bought/late night DIY angst or stress.

Completely agree, my ten year old said this the other day he doesn’t want to dress up at all and thinks its silly. He made a point that they should just be focusing on reading.

That’s a movie isn’t it? 😳🤣

Mine are going as Gandalf and Frodo because they’ve read the Hobbit and are currently reading TLoTR with daddy at bedtime

Our school gives kids the choice between fancy dress and clothes that are comfortable for reading.

If yours doesn't offer that choice, and your children don't like dressing up, the go to is to be a Muggle from Harry Potter.

Not compulsory/go as yourself is all fine until they make it a competition with a best in class prize like my school randomly has this year. It's not their usual MO at all!

All these fast fashion Amazon/shein costumes being bought and ending up in landfill it’s awful

Our school give the choice between dressing up or PJs, and they bring in a blanket for a whole school reading session in the hall. They get the oldest kids to read to the littlest ones too, it's sweet. Costumes don't have to be hard, mine are going as Percy Jackson (jeans, an orange t shirt and a ballpoint pen in his pocket) and a flower fairy (we already have a flowery pink tutu and fairy wings in the dressing up box). Last year both changed their minds at the last minute and went in pyjamas so I've refused to buy anything new this year!

To me that means it works! As in, the astronaut costume encourages them to adventure books on space?

I don't mind the costume thing (although parents need to be given plenty of notice and it not be compulsory) but what irritates me is when schools say the costumes have to be a specific theme like a word or an adjective (so not a book) or a character from Shakespeare (also not a book.... they're plays).
The theme is BOOKS. There's no need for another theme 😂

Was that their Halloween costume? A lot of children rewear what they have. I suppose KPDH have a book series.
My GC school is PJs or costume. The costume can be mostly own clothes. Primary school is expensive enough these days.

Our school does pjs and story time where the parents come in and read. Slightly better I guess.
they also take the vouchers to the local WHSmiths and get the books themselves to give out as many parents were not redeeming the vouchers themselves.

In our house its not pointless and isn't all about costumes. We read alot anyway but focus on booked that DS would like to dress up for for world book day. School set homework - this year it was to create a 3D model related to a book you liked. DS costume is from a book. We also tend to go and buy some more books to add to his collection the weekend after world book day
It is as focused on books as you make it.

Maybe it varies by school, ours does reading events and kids can wear pajamas too, maybe half wear a costume. I don’t think it matters if kids go as a movie character instead of a book one, it’s just some fun for the kids. Schools should make sure they do proper reading events to go with it though.

We literally didn’t have time to read yesterday because I spent the whole evening running around trying to sort the 15 different things we had to bring in today (our school is doing it today as there is a trip for KS1 tomorrow).

The first couple years when my eldest was in primary they didn’t do dressing up from a sustainability, not supporting fast fashion perspective, less plastic tat bought off Amazon. It was lovely. Now new head and it’s slid back into just dressing up. We didn’t even bring in a good book as no outfit to go with it. Mine is is a Minecraft t-shirt with a Minecraft joke book because that’s just all I could muster up.

mine are past now thankfully. I did just have a phone memory pop up from years ago. they went as Pippi Longstocking (her own clothes but the hair needed work) and Sophie from the BFG. Nightie and slippers. My mum was brilliant though and helped me out of last minute panics the night before.

Please don’t do this to your child. Making them go in wearing a dressing gown/pyjamas while other kids have real costumes will make them feel less than and stick with them. Put some effort in.

I'd like the dressing up to be stopped and for schools to just have a longer reading session with kids. Head could take the day to read to each year group or something.

I disagree. My DC have chosen characters from books and have spent the last few days making 'props' based on details from the book. School encourage homemade costumes and while a lot of parents don't stick to that, my DC love being involved in making their costumes.

I like it as does my dd. It's fun and as avid readers, she enjoys picking out her character and I enjoy putting together the costume. I suppose for non-readers, I would agree with you in that it's not going to make them start reading if they don't already. But we enjoy it.

For everyone saying they dislike it are you feeding this back into the school and saying why you dislike it?
My children love it and we generally make costumes with items we already own. Our school seems to be a mixture of bought costumes and home made costumes. We also benefit from a local online community where people pass on costumes for free once their children have outgrown them.
Are people using the book vouchers they are given by their schools? I had a friend who didn't realise you could get anything with them. There are some great books to choose from this year. If they don't fancy any of the titles it can be used towards a full priced book instead.