Christmas Jumper Day is one of my favourite ways to fundraise. It’s fun, it’s silly, it doesn’t involve having to get up at 6am to train in the wind and rain – and it still raises money to help children in the UK - and all over the world – get the future they deserve. Amazing.
But I know that – especially in the current economic climate – many schools are worried that fundraising events place an additional burden on families who are already struggling.
The last thing anyone at Save the Children wants to do is make things more difficult for children and families – that’s the opposite of what we were set up to do! So I’ve taken some advice from the experts at the Child Poverty Action Group, to put together the following tips for making sure that no-one is left out on Christmas Jumper Day.
Fundraising tips:
- Keep it in the family – try a family donation system, where not every sibling has to donate
- Make it discreet – don’t go around collecting donations, or checking off a list of who has or hasn’t donated. Why not have a donation box in a safe, central location – like at the front of the classroom, or near the school entrance instead.
- Move it online – we’re offering every school who signs up a JustGiving page that can be sent to parents instead of asking for coins. That way parents can give smaller amounts anonymously (or not at all) without anyone knowing.
- Reassure parents – make sure they know that £2 is only a suggested donation amount and they can donate less – or not at all – if they need to.
- Ban the bake – Avoid holding bake sales or other kinds of fundraising where children have to pay to take part.
- Plenty of notice – give parents as much notice as possible that the day is coming, so they have time to plan their finances
Christmas Jumper tips:
- Reward creativity – discourage pupils from wearing new jumpers by giving house points, sweets, or other rewards to children who either decorate their own, or re-wear old jumpers.
- (Temporarily) jazz up your school jumper - dedicate a lesson to making decorations that can be pinned onto children’s school jumpers, and then removed after the big day.
- Christmas T-shirt day – instead of jumpers have everyone bring in (or even better, if the school can afford to provide them) a much cheaper plain t-shirt that can be decorated with marker pens, stickers or glitter.
- Reverse Christmas Jumper Day – ask children to bring in any jumpers that are not wanted or no longer fit. You can then make these available to everyone on a donate what you can (or not at all) basis. Making sure these jumpers are available to everyone – not just those who need them – can help reduce stigma.
- Whole-school approach – while targeted support can be helpful for children from low-income backgrounds, CPAG suggest that whole-school approaches are even more beneficial. Are there other ways you can think of that would reduce the cost of taking part for everyone at your school?
I hope that these tips have reassured you that it’s possible to hold fundraising events like Christmas Jumper Day without making the lives of some of your pupils harder.
If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still plenty of time – and this year we’ve worked with some educational experts to make special resources for schools, including KS1&2 and KS3&4 lesson plans, assembly PowerPoint presentations and more that we hope will get everyone at your school engaged and excited for Christmas Jumper Day 2023.
If you have any tips that you think I’ve missed – or you have an excellent idea your school uses that you think we should promote next year I’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected], with the subject line “Inclusive Christmas Jumper Day” and the team will read all of your responses and use them to give even better advice next year.
