The spooky season is now upon us and Halloween is just around the corner. 

For many of us in the Smile office, some of our favourite memories at school are fun-filled days with parties, dress up and celebrations so, of course, we were a little surprised about the recent decisions some schools have made to ban Halloween.

With such a difficult decision we thought we would share some of the reasons we found for and against banning Halloween so you can decide for yourself!

Halloween must go 

For a lot of families and teachers October can be a stressful month. For teachers, planning Halloween activities on top of their usual workload can be overwhelming and add to their already high-stress levels. For families, the additional costs of Halloween costumes can be an unnecessary added pressure, which is especially true with this year's rising gas and electricity prices. 

On top of that, like our team’s recent push for diversity and inclusion, schools are trying to create a more inclusive environment for students. With Halloween having religious roots many religious families may not feel comfortable having their children celebrate and for families that are on a tight budget, costumes can be expensive. To avoid leaving out children that can not take part in the activities a lot of schools suggest having an autumn/harvest-themed celebration with children wearing certain colours meaning everyone can get involved!

Halloween must stay

For most people fun days at school are some of their favourite childhood memories. It’s important that schools encourage both academic learning and creativity/social skills. Days like Halloween are the perfect time to get your students to be creative by writing scary stories, designing their costumes and creating Halloween-themed art, the parties are also a great way to develop your student's social skills!

Some people may argue that the present-day Halloween celebrations are more of a public holiday than a religious event, Halloween parties, costumes and candy are far removed from the holiday's religious roots and traditional practices of celebrating the dead and warning off evil spirits aren’t encouraged at schools meaning everyone should be able to get involved, furthermore, a lot of parents already put together DIY costumes to save money so throwing together a costume from what you already own isn’t frowned upon for those with a tighter budget.

What our school staff think

Of those who answered our survey, 31% said they believe Halloween should be banned due to its “pagan roots” and its “scary” nature. However, 68% said that they believe Halloween shouldn’t be banned, when asked why they said that the holiday is “just a bit of fun” and is a chance for children to “learn in a way that is different to day-to-day lessons”. Furthermore, for inclusivity reasons one of our teachers said that they don’t believe Halloween should be banned and “instead of getting rid of Halloween, maybe we should be looking at how we can broaden children's experiences through the celebration of key events from other religions and cultures too.” 

What we think

Halloween is one of the most fun and memorable times of year for lots of kids across the UK, there’s nothing better than seeing their faces light up when they see themselves dressed up and excited thinking about all of the candy they will get. However, we also understand the limitations Halloween has when it comes to inclusivity and as an education recruitment agency, each individual child is important to us. That is why we feel that parents and schools should work together on an individual basis to make a decision on what is best for their school.

If your school does decide to go ahead with the Halloween celebrations check out our blogs ‘Scary stories to read at Halloween’ full of stories suitable for students and …….

Have an opinion on the matter? Comment below!

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