Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day is often the flagship charity fundraising day for many schools.

In normal years, marking the day involves all kinds of activities that are unlikely to conform to the social distancing and bubble-friendly rules of school life in 2021.

Tips for a Covid-safe Red Nose Day

Baths of beans may be off the menu, but all is not lost. Here are some activities that your school can offer to help raise money for many important charities here and abroad.

1. Virtual bake-off

Cockermouth School in Cumbria has circumvented the problem of bringing in baked goods and sharing them on-site by switching to an online challenge. This year students will bake at home and share a photo of their creation, paying 50p to enter.

“The students themselves picked this as a fundraising option,” says Amy Forrester, English teacher and pastoral lead of key stage 4. “And we’ve already had really good levels of engagement. It should be a great competition.”

2. Rate my joke

Comic Relief has always been about making people laugh and to encourage them to donate to a good cause, so it makes sense that Millfields Primary School in Essex has chosen a joke competition.

Children will be donating money to wear their home clothes, and then telling jokes in class and voting for the best one. Each class winner will be recorded and then shown to all students via a video for the whole school virtual assembly.

3. Egg hunt orienteering

Orienteering is a great outdoor activity, and most schools will already have the equipment from their PE lessons.

Stuart Box is a Year 5 teacher in a primary school in Lancashire, and has organised orienteering with a Red Nose twist.

“We’ve installed two new orienteering courses with red noses and mini eggs hidden at checkpoints and at the end,” he says. “Our school is focusing on getting outside and getting active at the moment, so this activity is perfect.”

4. Shout out to the everyday superheroes

This year, St Gregory’s CEVC Primary School in Suffolk is using Red Nose Day to send a big thank you to the heroes in its community.

“We made a video thanking real-life superheroes and invited our school community to nominate people to send it to,” explains headteacher Daniel Woodrow. 

“We sent the video to parents along with a thank-you letter. We also had T-shirts made with a Superman logo made up of all of the children’s first names. All staff are wearing it on a T-shirt on Friday as a surprise.”

Along with the video is a link to an online donation page set up by the school to encourage people to donate what they can to Red Nose Day.