I love a cheesy joke, but the idea for a book of dad jokes for Father’s Day was a real lightbulb moment! We hadn’t come across anything like it before.
Each year, we alternate our fundraisers. One year, we will use All My Own Work for Mother’s Day cards and gifts and choose something different for Father’s Day, and vice versa. This year, we needed a new idea for Father’s Day, and the joke book concept just popped into my head.
To gather dad jokes, we sent letters out via the teachers. Pupils could submit their favourites by returning the bottom part of the letter. We defined our dad jokes as cheesy or corny jokes, rather than jokes that came specifically from dads – we wanted to be inclusive, as the topic of fatherhood is a sensitive subject in some families.
Putting the book together was surprisingly easy. I categorised the jokes to make sure there weren’t too many of the same type on each page. I also aimed for a balance of jokes from all years. It took three hours to collate the content and design the book using a Canva template, but it was such fun, I’d have spent double that time without complaining!
When it came to printing the book, we used printed.com. We had used them previously for event programmes and leavers’ books and had always found their service helpful. But this time we needed a bit more assistance (due to my submitting copy with a few errors), and they were really supportive.
Our PTA always ensures that everything we sell is pre-ordered, so there’s no guesswork involved. This strategy helps us maximise profits. We are lucky to have access to the school payment app Eduspot for our uniform sales, events and activities. So, when it was time to sell the book, we added it to the app and sent out the communications. The funds from the ‘shop’ went directly into our PTA bank account. We distributed the books to pupils as soon as they arrived. We bought 100 perfect-bound copies for £120 and sold them for £4 each, resulting in a profit of about £230 from what was a fun and straightforward project.
As for the jokes, there were some absolute crackers. My favourite has to be: ‘What do you call a cow on a trampoline? A milkshake!’
Gini Potter is former chair of Linslade Lower School Association in Leighton Buzzard (180 pupils)
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