Birthdays are an important milestone for all children and they are often keen to extend their celebration to the classroom.

Many schools no longer allow birthday cakes or foods to be sent from home for in-class birthday celebrations. However, if families would still like to send something from home you could suggest some of the following non-food low-cost ideas:

• A book that is read in class and then donated to the school library on behalf of the birthday child (you could inscribe the book with a message)
• Stickers
• Stamps
• Novelty erasers, pens or pencils
• Colouring-ins

You could also create your own classroom traditions for children's birthdays such as:

• fun game or activity for the whole class selected by the birthday child
• choice of birthday privileges
• all the birthday children for the week or month are sung to at assembly
• special badge or piece of clothing to wear for the day.