Being creative for World Book Day 2020 doesn't have to be a mad panic and you don’t need buy a costume to celebrate the day.

Here is our list of 20 easy costumes you can make at home, without a needle in sight.  

1. Matilda

One of Roald Dahl’s most popular characters.

It may not be the most obvious choice it is one of the easiest, as long as you have a blue dress to hand.

Just put your child in a blue dress, white tights, with a red ribbon in their hair and give them a pile of books to carry and you're good to go. 

2. Boy in the dress

It’s simple as it sounds. All you require is an orange dress and a football to hand. If you don’t have an orange dress, it doesn’t matter, any colour dress will do just fine.

3. George from George’s Marvellous Medicine

All you need is red long-sleeved top and blue jeans. If you have a son called George, this is even more perfect. If not, simply put a name tag on them. Then give them a big saucepan (labelled ‘marvellous medicine’) and a wooden spoon.

4. Miss Honey

Ideal for teachers.

The teacher everyone is sweet on, Miss Honey is a great costume if you’ve low on time or budget. A nice floral dress, a cardigan, some glasses and carry some flowers – simple, but effective. 

5. Gangsta Granny

All you need is a black eye mask but if you don’t have one of those you could use face paint – or mascara, if you have an old one knocking about.

Then dress them in a ‘granny-style’ cardigan or blouse, a black skirt, old slippers and a pair of wrinkly tights. If you don’t have a grey wig, put some talcum powder in their hair.

Then grab a sack that would work as a swag bag. 

6. Little Red Riding Hood

Cut a large semicircle of red fabric and fasten it over your child’s head with a safety pin.  Have your child wear a plain dress, white socks and traditional shoes. Complete the look by arranging a basket full of goodies (cookies and cakes etc.) for them to carry.

7. Where’s Wally

All you need is long-sleeved red and white striped jumper and blue trousers or leggings.

Match it with a bobble hat and some black round-rimmed glasses.

If you don’t have a stripy jumper, you could use tape some red stripes across a plain white top. You can even draw on the glasses with face paint if you don’t have a pair.

Finish with a pair of brown shoes or boots if you have.

8. Harry & His Bucketful of Dinosaurs

To dress your little one up like Harry all you need is a yellow t shirt, a red vest, blue jeans and a blue bucket. If you don’t have a blue bucket, it won’t matter, any colour will do.

Fill the bucket with some of your child’s favourite dinosaur toys to complete the look.

9. Harry Potter

This is the easiest costume you can put together! Have your child wear very smart school uniform and circular glasses, and draw a lightning scar on their forehead using face paint or make-up. Give them additional props if you like such as a black robe or cape, a wand, a Gryffindor-colour scarf or a toy owl.

10. Captain Underpants

Easily recreate this with some white or pink clothing underneath some - yes you guessed it - underpants.

Just don't forget to put some undies on the bottom layer too!

11. Hetty Feather

All you need is a brown or black dress or top and skirt and a candlestick as a prop. Finish the outfit off with one of Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather books.

12. Room on the Broom

Got a witch’s hat? Yes, then all you’ll need to finish the look is a red top and purple skirt. You could use a sweeping brush as the broom and a bucket as the cauldron. If you don’t have a dress, it'll work with black leggings and top.

And if you are feeling really creative, attach a replica frog and a cat to the brush for extra effect.

13. Rapunzel

If you've got some yellow wool, or brown depending on your little one’s hair you can plait it and make it in to fake hair which you can attach to your little one's ponytail.

Then simply put them in a purple coloured dress and that’s it! If you have a different coloured dress, that’s fine – any colour will do.

14. Cat in the Hat

Dr Seuss's The Cat In The Hat is an outfit you can pull together really easily.

Use black tracksuit bottoms and white T-shirt, with a black cardigan (and white gloves if you have them). Make a red bow out of ribbon and construct a mini top hat if you can. Paint your child’s face white and add whiskers.

15. Peter Rabbit

Another easy outfit you can pull together in minutes. Have your child wear all brown with a pale blue cardigan. Make a fluffy white tail to strap onto the brown trousers by sticking cotton wool onto a large circle. Make rabbit ears from brown triangles fastened to elastic, so you child can wear them as a headband.

16. Mr. Twit

Make a ‘revolting’ beard with brown wool of various lengths knotted onto elastic that can fasten around your child’s head. Have your child draw different food stuffs onto paper, cut them out and stick them onto the beard. They need to look dirty and dishevelled, so have them wear old clothes with splodges of brown paint that looks like dirt.

For added effect, you can even paint their finger and toenails yellow, and have them wear sandals!

17. Goldilocks

Get some yellow wool and make two very long plaits by cutting about 20 pieces of wool very long and dividing into two, then plaiting by tying each with a bobble at the top. Tie the bottom of each plait with a bobble and a ribbon. Attach to your child’s own hair or a white maid-style hat. Have your child wear a blue dress, white socks and some traditional T-bar shoes.

Complete with a brown bear to carry around if you have.

18. Mary Poppins

All you need is a for your child to wear a black skirt with a white blouse tucked in. They’ll also need a little white maid-type apron and an umbrella for extra effect!

 19. Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

If you haven’t got the props to dress them as Willy Wonka, Charlie is an easy option. All you need is scruffy clothes and a handmade golden ticket.

 20. The BFG

We wouldn’t recommend stilts for this one but you can still get them to look like the Big Friendly Giant with some baggy trousers, a brown waistcoat and a big baggy shirt.

Make some big ears by cutting out an ear shape using pink paper, then stick them onto a headband. To complete the look, find a little doll to be Sophie for them to put in their hand or shirt pocket.

Working in the field of teaching often comes with a bad rep. From being underpaid to the pressure of classroom management, it’s fair to say that teaching is not an easy job.

 However, being a teacher can also leave you with an abundance of joy and happiness.

 Whether it’s the positive impact you’ve made to a child’s academic, emotional and social learning or the set of skills and knowledge you’ve acquired along the way; here are our 10 reasons why teaching remains a rewarding career choice.

1. Children teach you as much as you teach them 

Being around young children and adults six hours a day can keep you feeling young. They can positively influence your vocabulary, fashion sense and ensure you are kept up to date with the latest pop culture references.  

2. No day is ever the same 

Most jobs come with a lot of repetitive tasks, which can sometimes result in feeling unfulfilled and unchallenged. Teaching is one of the few professions where you get the chance to be creative and engage in something new every day.  

3. You are a role model 

Ever heard the expression, with great power comes great responsibility? As cliché as the saying may sound, teachers are highly admired for being a good role model to their students. It is a great accomplishment when children can look to you to guide and advise them not just with school work but also with their social life. In fact, being an inspiration to young leaders is just one of the many perks of the job.  

4. Expect to laugh… a lot 

Children may be a handful at times, but there’s no denying their ability to make you chortle. They are a bundle of joy and, most of the time, have a great sense of humor. So if you’ve had a bad start to the day, you can always rely on your students to cheer you up and make you laugh. It’s these precious moments that make teaching absolutely worth it.  

5. Learn new skills 

Being a teacher allows you to expand and develop on new skills. Whether your chosen subject is English, Maths or Science; as a teacher, you can choose to build upon transferrable skills by participating in sports days, managing breakfast and after school clubs and can even offer counseling sessions. Did we mention that no day is ever the same?  

6. Establish genuine relationships along the way 

Working in teaching enables you to build positive relationships with students, parents and the wider school community.

7. Make friends for life 

You get the opportunity to form real and long-lasting friendships with like-minded colleagues, who share the same passion for teaching as you do.

8. That memorable and cherished moment when a student finally gets it

Nothing beats the moment when a student’s lightbulb goes off and they finally understand what you’ve been teaching them. Witnessing their growth and knowing you contributed to the child’s learning progression is a feeling like no other.  

9. Schools out for summer

There are many rewarding highlights of being a teacher. However it can be sometimes feel chaotic and nonstop, which is why teachers are rewarded with a much-needed and well-deserved six-week summer break. While your non-teacher friends continue to work their 9-5 jobs, you get the chance to relax, recharge and enjoy your summer holiday. The summer break is also the perfect opportunity to reflect on your teaching strategies and improve on lesson plans, if needed, for the upcoming school year.

10. End of year teacher gifts

Whether it’s a hand-made appreciation card or a purchased gift, it’s really the thought that counts.   There are so many advantages of being a teacher, fact. However, the best feeling is knowing you are educating tomorrow’s leaders and opening the door to all other professions. Now that is the ultimate job satisfaction.  

A comment from a prominent expert in social work that Haringey’s legal advice in the Baby P case had been provided by a locum solicitor with little experience in children's legislation, who recommended that there were no grounds for care proceedings, underlines the importance of rigorous selection procedures when appointing locum solicitors.

That’s the view of specialist recruitment agency TLTP Group after Professor Ray Jones, a professor of social work at Kingston University and author of a book on the Baby P case, listed the locum solicitor issue as one of three areas of omission prior to the child’s death during a speech to the British Association of Social Workers' annual conference.

The other two areas, he said, were the criminal investigations conducted by the Metropolitan police while Peter was still alive and the paediatric assessment service offered by Great Ormond Street Hospital.

“If you are going to hire a locum solicitor, this case highlights the need to really know or work with an agency that understands how the legal market works in practice,” explains Darryl Mydat, Managing Director, TLTP Group.

“This might sound basic but we spoke to one criminal solicitor recently who told us that an agency he was dealing with did not even understand the difference between a higher court advocate and a duty solicitor. Our legal recruitment team is led by a solicitor rather than a recruiter which is an important distinction.”

Mydat adds that the complexity and specialisation in the modern legal system demands that recruiters really narrow down the expertise of their candidates so that they can identify a position genuinely suited to their experience.

“As we tragically saw here, having many years’ experience as a family solicitor does not equal detailed knowledge of the Children Acts,” he says. “In order to fulfil their client’s expectations, when the need to use an agency arises, it is obviously vital that law firms and public bodies use professional, trained recruiters who understand the law and its complexities.”

TLTP Legal offers the recruitment of locum criminal solicitors both as police station representatives and duty solicitors and has also supplied practices with locum solicitors to take on work for firms or supplement existing teams. The new TLTP team is being led by Lee Marsons, himself a qualified criminal solicitor.

Founded in 2006, TLTP Group is a privately-owned recruitment consultancy specialising in the supply of professionals to both the public and private sectors worldwide. At the heart of TLTP’s role as a vendor manager is the guarantee to provide people who are unquestionably fit for purpose.

At the same time it ensures that its workforce is placed on assignments to which they are suited as individuals, where they are happy and content – assignments which suit their personal agendas and circumstances, where their contribution is appreciated, where they can provide the vital services for which they were trained and where they can further develop their skill-sets.

He is one of the most influential writers of all time, whose stories, especially his fairy tales, have established themselves as part of the very fabric of western culture. Whether it is The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes or the Ugly Duckling, the collective works of Hans Christian Anderson have left an indelible mark.

The timeless stories have been passed down for many generations and reinterpreted and adapted with great enthusiasm and joy. As legacies go, the 19thcentury Danish author has done rather well.

Not only have his stories entertained children and adults alike, they have also enthused other authors, such as Alan Alexander Milne (Winnie the Poo) and Kenneth Grahame (Wind in the Willows), to delve deeper into their imagination. The world is certainly a richer place because of him.Milne (Winnie the Poo) and Kenneth Grahame (Wind in the Willows), to delve deeper into their imagination. The world is certainly a richer place because of him.

In celebration of his impact, the International Board on Books for Young People founded, in 1967, International Children's Book Day, to "inspire a love of reading and to call to attention to children's books".

It is held annually on Anderson's birthday (April 2nd) and ahead of this year's festivities, we've come up with some ideas on how to make the most of this at school with your primary school pupils.

Write your own short fairytale

Let your pupil's imagination run riot with this activity. The task is simple: write a fairytale within a defined period of time and share it with the rest of the class.

Provide your pupils with some key details. This includes the basic elements that make up a story:

• An obvious beginning (Once upon a time; Long ago ...)
• The world the characters find themselves has to be make-believe
• It contains characters that you don't find in the real world (ghouls, goblins, monsters, elves, dragons and trolls)
• The triumph of good over evil
• Good and bad characters
• A challenge to overcome

Read and tell the class

This is a fantastic activity that promotes comprehension, memory recall and communication skills and pushes youngsters out of their comfort zone. Get pupils to read very short story or chapter out of a book and then explain back to everyone what it was about. Get them to draw images onto a whiteboard as well, which is great for seeing how they visualise a story.

The chilled out reading corner

Ideal for the back end of the day, this chilled out activity is a nice way to wind down a busy day of reading fun. Get some treats in – healthy fruit and veg with a few naughty biscuits thrown in – lots of comfy cushions and seating, play some ambient music and get your pupils to spend some quality time with a book. Beyond just this celebratory day, invest in this kind of environment when getting your pupils to read. It's important because it underscores how pleasant reading is.

Design your own book cover

Another great activity for getting youngsters to think creatively, this involves you, the teacher, reading a story – maybe not that well known – and then challenging the class to come up with a cover and title. Afterwards, get everyone to pin their efforts on a board and have everyone spend some time looking at the images. Then, standing up next to the book covers, get them to talk about their ideas. At the end, reveal the cover and title and see what kind of response this results in.

In any classroom, striking a balance between serious learning and fun can be a fantastic way to ensure the kids are kept engaged and interested in what you're teaching them. 

Having fun activities and keeping things light from time to time means pupils don't dread coming to class, and means they're far more likely to listen to you, especially when they've got something to look forward to. 

We take a look at the top ways you can help make it fun in your classroom. 

Start the week right

Monday morning isn't the best time of the week for anyone, let alone kids who have just enjoyed a fantastic weekend with their friends and family, and getting people engaged with work at this time of the week can be hard. Why not let them start their school week with memories of the weekend. 

Have some circle time on a Monday morning and allow kids the chance to tell everyone else what a great time they had. Doing so will mean they feel excited about what they did at the weekend, and you'll start your teaching on a happy note, giving more scope for better Monday learning. 

Fun time

In many schools across the country, fun time or golden time can be a good way to incentivise kids to get everything done and do well in their school work. Once a week, set aside some time to allow those who have worked hard throughout the week have fun. 

It's a good idea to award time to kids throughout the week so they feel like they've earned a little time to do what they want on a Friday afternoon. Let them choose from a range of games, craft activities and other fun things and they'll look forward to it all week. 

Sing along

The rise of movies such as Frozen has given kids a new love for the world of singing along to popular songs, and you can bring this into the classroom with a little singing time as a class to let everyone express themselves. 

Choose one afternoon a week to get everyone together in one place and have a good sing along. It can even be a good idea to let people take turns choosing the songs you'll all sing so that everyone really feels like a part of it. 

Crafts

Everyone loves crafts and being arty, and kids perhaps more so than anyone else. We all loved Art Attack as kids ourselves, so why not bring the spirit of Neil Buchanan back into your adult life by showing kids how they can be creative with things they find at home.

Invite your pupils to bring things from home and then challenge them to turn them into great works of art that can have pride of place as decorations in your classroom. Not only will this be great fun for all involved, it'll be a fantastic way to allow more creativity to flow through your lessons.