Five flipping fantastic ideas for Pancake Day!

PTAs Fundraising
23 January 2020
Pancake themed events promise a lot of fun and some might say a lot of mess! Shrove Tuesday falls on 25th February, so you’ve got a few weeks to pull something together. Here are a five tried and tested ideas that kids of all ages will enjoy, complete with mess-reducing options!

1. Pancake breakfast

This can be a really nice opportunity for staff, PTA and kids to get together. If there’s a school kitchen you can use, you might want to help children mix up the batter and demonstrate how to make pancakes from scratch. Alternatively, warm up ready-made pancakes in a microwave and set out a range of toppings.

2. Flip the light fantastic

You can theme a disco for any occasion, including Pancake Day! Instead of the usual tuck shop or hot-dogs, why not serve pancakes – ready-made chocolate filled crepes go down well, hold pancake races, toss the pancake and other fun games.

Customise our Pancake Day poster or a disco poster with your event details.

3. Pancake toss

Bring the fun to the whole school with a sponsored pancake toss. Have prizes for the most individual tosses as well as class prizes, and perhaps even teacher prizes! Pancakes tend to fall apart fairly quickly, so a great tip is to use oatcakes or tortillas instead. If you’re registered for Gift Aid, make sure you use the HMRC sponsorship form to make claiming your extra funds easy.

4. Pop-up pancake café

Encourage families to come together after school at a pop-up café. To make things easier on your volunteers, buy ready-made pancakes in bulk and if you have use of a school kitchen, warm them up in advance. If you’re heating as you go, get a few microwaves lined up! Get a range of toppings in so kids can get creative and design delicious pancakes for their loved ones.

5. The classic… pancake race!

Indoors or outdoors, be prepared for mayhem! Depending on the size of your school you can do this as a whole school, by key stage or year group – whatever’s manageable for you. Use durable pancake substitutes (oatcakes or tortillas), or be authentic but have plenty of replacements on hand (along with a dustpan and brush). Typically this event is more about the fun than fundraising, so why not approach local businesses to cover the cost of your pancakes and prizes, or ask parents for donations in advance.

Parentkind tips:

  • Check out the PTA resources for event posters you can download and personalise
  • Find out what others are doing – DM us @PTAExpertbyParentkind and we’ll post your question to our community of nearly 40,000 PTA enthusiasts!