How to wear it pink at school

Organising a fundraising event at school is an incredible opportunity to raise money, raise awareness and have a really fun day! Get staff, students and parents involved and help us to make life-saving breast cancer research and life-changing care happen.

First things first, you need to register for wear it pink. It doesn’t take long, and once it’s done, you can request or download one of our fabulous fundraising packs. Inside your pack there are loads of fun decorations, games, a fundraising guide and a paying in slip. When you register you will also get support from our wear it pink team, who will be on hand to help you with anything you need, from fancy dress ideas to extra materials.

Have a chat with your Headteacher and Head of Department to make sure it’s okay to hold a fundraiser at your school. Wear it pink is primarily a dress-down day, so you will need the full support of your school leaders.

If they need more information or want to know more about us as a charity, they can give us a call on 0333 20 70 300 or email us at wearitpink@breastcancernow.org. Try to do this far ahead of time, as sometimes more than one person needs to sign it off.

Most people will be hosting their event in October, as this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but if that doesn’t work for you and your school, then that’s totally okay! Choose a day that works for everyone and just let us know so we can support you in the best way possible.

Most schools choose to do a dress-down day, where all students are encouraged to wear pink and give a small donation to do so – we would recommend £1 or £2. Make sure you work this around your school’s dress code and clothing standards and decide if students are permitted to wear fancy dress or simply pink clothing.

The easiest way to do this is by advertising wear it pink day in the school newsletter. Try to be really clear on what wear it pink day is – what day is it? What do students have to do? What do parents have to do? Make sure to include any dress regulations so nobody gets confused.

Once you’ve been given the go-ahead from the Head teacher and have let the parents know ahead of time, it’s time to tell the students about the upcoming day of fun! Put it in the daily notices, the school website, the education portal and start putting up posters around the school.

If you need extra posters, which you probably will, you can download and print more. Tip: the best places to put these are in the toilets, near the school canteen, in your classrooms and near the bag racks.

You’ll want to organise some easy and fun games to play with your students. Put together a rough schedule of when you will hold these activities – during assembly, during morning class or any other specified time of the day.

You can play a sweepstake, bingo, a colouring in competition, award best-dressed, and even hold a bake sale for the older kids. You can be as creative as you want to be with getting the students involved. Think of what you might need for each of these activities and start planning to save you any last-minute stress.

Do you have enough of everything? If you need extra decorations, you can download and print these at school. Alternatively, you can order them online to be delivered to your school. You can get more of anything that was in your pack, as well as lots of other new and exciting items.

Make sure you have your paying in slip. Once your event has happened, you’ll want to pay in the money as soon as you can to avoid it sitting around your desk. If you’ve misplaced the paying in slip we sent in our fundraising pack – order another one so you’ve got it when you need it. If you’re planning a bigger event where you need more support, just get in touch and we’ll make sure you have everything you need.

If you’re planning to hold an assembly during wear it pink day, it’s good to have a short and simple speech to cover the following:

• What is breast cancer? You can find information on this on our website, however for schools we recommend a very simplified message – especially for younger children.
• Why it’s important to fund research and care – so that one day, everyone with breast cancer lives, and is supported to live well.

Send a reminder about wear it pink day home to the parents a week before and remind the children both a week before and the day before the event. Remind them to wear pink and bring along a small donation, or share the JustGiving link with the parents.

Once you’ve decorated your classroom – it’s time to wear it pink! Wear it pink is a day to have fun whilst doing something amazing – raising money for our life-saving research and life-changing care. Have your camera or smart phone at the ready and remember to take lots of photos.

We absolutely love seeing what you get up to on your wear it pink day, so you can send your photos to us at wearitpink@breastcancernow.org - but please only send us photos or children whose parents have given us permission to use the photos on our website and social media.

Once you’ve collected all your fundraising from the day, it's time to pay it in! Find out more about paying in your donations.

We hope this guide is useful in helping you put together an incredibly successful wear it pink day. Throw in as much creativity as you like, and remember that you are doing something absolutely amazing – wearing pink, raising money, and making life-saving breast cancer research and life-changing care happen.