Monmouthshire councillors have been told that events such as World Book Day and other dressing up days are frowned upon by its education department.
The South Wales Argus has reported that the council’s chief officer for children and young people, Will McLean, told councillors it has been working with the Gwent Education Achievement Service and other bodies, to ensure that schools understand the challenges the cost-of-living crisis is causing families.
Will said: “Some of those can be very easy steps forward. Not expecting everybody to come to school in fancy dress on World Book, not expecting people to wear their football kits on certain days, actually just being really flexible.
“Odd sock days are a great way of involving everyone having fun but it doesn’t cost those additional things and we’ve seen in the past, research done by officers in the authority, that parents have to make really difficult decisions about what they forego to enable their children to go to school and participate.
“It’s a continuing challenge for us but we’ve been working closely with EAS on their tackling aspects of poverty scheme to make sure we address that and we’ve worked really hard with our schools to make sure they understand those pressures in the classroom.”
