Thursday is World Book Day in the UK and Ireland, with many primary schools encouraging children to take part.

However, schools in England are moving away from dressing up for the event due to concerns that the activity could detract from the promotion of reading for pleasure, experts say.

Here, teachers and parents tell us their views on World Book Day.

‘It should be fun, but book focused’

Schools really need to do a better job of World Book Day. They either seem to just say dress up and get a herd of footballers and Disney princesses, or make it really academic, like getting the pupils to dress up as an adjective. Neither is right; it should be fun, but book focused. Get them writing stories about their favourite characters – with no marking, just positive praise for creativity. Get them to make their own costumes at school. Read aloud. Do mad libs. Do a book treasure hunt on the field. It’s actually not that hard.
Laura, parent, Warwickshire

‘Another point of stress for parents’

While I support the intention behind World Book Day, to encourage reading for pleasure, in practice it has become yet another point of stress for parents, regardless of income. Dressing up has become the main, competitive element of the day. Looking at the costumes, few relate to the child’s favourite character and instead simply reflect whatever happened to be available in Tesco at the late-night emergency dash.

One of the bases for school uniform – the removal of stigma for those not able or willing to spend on the latest fashion – seems to be undermined by frequent non-uniform days. During my teaching days up until 2015, I noted an increased absence rate among children receiving free school meals on non-uniform days. Talking to the parents, it was obvious that part of this was just the cost implication of trying to find costumes and having to stitch them together.
Paul, parent and former teacher, West Midlands

‘A bit of fun’

I think it’s a bit of fun. My parents didn’t have a lot of money when I was young, and I was brought up to be creative, so I see World Book Day as an opportunity to flex those muscles once again. I prefer to purchase clothes from Vinted or charity shops to make up a costume, just because I hate buying something that will probably only be worn once – but I know I have the luxury of more free time than many other parents. Saying that, I did have to purchase a last-minute orange T-shirt for a tiger costume as I didn’t find one in time this year! I also have the luxury of an enthusiastic kid who loves to read and loves a homemade costume, so he makes it easy for me.
Laura, 41, parent, Oxfordshire

‘Reading aloud is probably a better strategy’

Pupils and staff dressed up for every World Book Day during my time as a teacher from 2007 to 2020, but increasingly the children dressed up as film characters. Given that book tie-ins are part of children’s film merchandising, it was impossible to stop this. I was literacy subject leader and one year I forgot to dress up for World Book Day, so dropped into a builders’ merchant and explained my predicament. They lent me a hard hat and overalls so I could be Bob the Builder. OK, he’s a TV character but he does have books!

I now volunteer for two hours at a school reading to children who aren’t read to at home. I think doing that is probably a better strategy than dressing up. World Book Day does plug reading, though I think that the teacher reading a story every day for 15 minutes before home time would be more beneficial. But when I was a teacher the curriculum didn’t allow this, and neither did Sats pressure.
Martin Lowe, 66, retired primary school teacher, Berwick-upon-Tweed

‘It has little noticeable effect’

In my experience of working largely in socially deprived areas, it has very little noticeable effect on the promotion or the enjoyment of reading. The day itself is filled with pleasant enough activities – word searches, quizzes, even a tiny bit of actual reading. But it’s far better to free teachers from curriculum overload and give them time and liberty to actually read a top-quality “class book” and give children time every day to read and chat about stimulating books.
Ian Butterworth, 66, recently retired primary school teacher, Shrewsbury

‘Free books are often donated back to school’

I’ve worked in UK schools for 10 years so I’ve seen a lot of World Book Days. As a parent, it’s stressful because children decide days in advance what they want to wear and it’s usually too late to successfully fulfil those ambitious dreams. I have rarely seen World Book Day actually encouraging the reading of the books the children dress up as characters from. It has certainly never encouraged my own children to read more, only to demand more stuff. Even the free books that they occasionally bring home are never read. They are often donated back to school or end up gathering dust. Simply being more involved in reading to my children and then seeing me read for pleasure has had a bigger impact on them wanting to read.
Kerry, 43, parent and teaching assistant, Swindon, Wiltshire