17th March 2021

Celebrating Red Nose Day In Schools

Every other year in the UK schools, community groups, clubs and individuals celebrate Red Nose Day which raises money for the charity Comic Relief. The money goes to help children all over the world, in developing countries and closer to home to live a life free of poverty. 

This year, Comic Relief are aiming to raise even more money to help the world’s most disadvantaged children. They’ve also worked to make the event greener – this year, the bright red Nose is made from a sustainable form of sugarcane, making them fully plastic free for the first time. The change came about after hundreds of letters were written from school children concerned about the impact of creating items with such a short term relevance that were destined for the bin. Their calls received backing from David Attenborough himself, and the new plastic-free Nose and Woodland Creature theme for 2021 was born!

Funding More UK Charities This Year

This year, with child poverty a very current issue and families across the UK struggling, funding for many smaller charities has been lost or cut due to the pandemic. Comic Relief has supported UK charities to help people in the UK to live lives free from poverty for years but this year have supported more UK organisations and individuals than ever before, tackling homelessness, domestic abuse, mental health stigma and other issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic

A shed load of silly, funny and challenging fundraising ideas

Comic Relief have provided LOADS of great ideas for fundraising, from pay-to-play office quizzes to sweepstakes. There’s a huge range of free downloadable resources for schools and individuals with loads of new ideas for personal challenges, sponsored events or money-raising ideas here. Red Nose Day has always been about fun and even though it may look a little different this year, there are still lots pf great ways to raise money by celebrating the day safely!

1. Download a pack from RND.com. You can download and print all resources that you’ll need, from sponsorship forms to event posters. There’s also a bunch of fun stuff for children or adults to enjoy –  We especially like the Share A Smile poster, which encourages people to write a joke and put it up in their window for passers-by to laugh at!
2. It’s probably been quite a while since many pupils will have had the chance to dress up. The theme of this years Red Nose Day is superpowers, and they suggest costumes based around your own personal superpower but you could easily dress as your favourite hero for the day, or follow the Noses lead and have a woodland creature theme for your class.
3. There’s plenty of ways to get involved in Red Nose Day virtually too – the virtual family challenge is an escape-room style game available on the Comic Relief website. Virtual karaoke for your bolder pupils, quizzes or even sharing their best made-up joke for the biggest laugh are all easy-to-plan and work in-person or virtually.
4. If you teach older children, it’s an ideal opportunity to start a frank discussion about the issues around child poverty and how fundraising and volunteering can help. There’s lots of suggestions for group activities in this resource from Teaching Ideas
5. There’s loads of fun recipes, art and craft projects, costume ideas and activities on Pinterest (don’t forget to follow our boards full of resources for teachers while you are there!)  If you don’t want to go the whole hog with a classful of tiny Ironmen, there’s plenty of free worksheets and drawing activities on Twinkl

Finally, if you are looking for ideas to raise some money and some laughs in the staffroom, we found this great list of ideas for Red Nose Day in the office!

We hope you enjoy Red Nose Day however you and your class chose – we’ll be sharing our favourite costumes and projects on twitter on March the 19th – follow us now.