While our minds are officially boggled over the leaked documents that show that there was a plan to smuggle Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in a fancy dress costume, we’ve also been planning our big September event - our Back to School party!

 

There’s no need to limit your imagination with this one. As the kids get miserable about the return to the schoolroom, we grown ups can enjoy reliving the few good things we can remember about school. First - pick your costume!

 

We’ve got everything you need, from cute schoolgirls for the St Trinian’s look, through to severe schoolmarms with cat’s eye glasses. There are masters with mortarboards and even Zombie Science Teachers. But if you really don’t care to put on your old school uniform look again, there’s always Harry Potter and Hogwarts … that’s a school, right?

 

Once you have your fancy dress, plan your playlist - Alice Cooper’s, School’s Out,  Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd) and Baggy Trousers by Madness are just the beginning - there are dozens of songs about school out there. And when you run out of songs that are actually about school, there’s nothing like dragging out the tunes from your old school discos to bring back some embarrassing memories.  And once you break out the dad dancing, it’ll probably end in tears … of laughter!

 

Finally - food. You need to set up a tuck shop. Some of those old fave raves from the school lunch days will break the ice, but make sure you mix them up with brilliant grown-up ideas - we saw some ‘test tube’ cocktails being served with packets of popping candy to create ‘explosions’ - that was fun. Other great Back to School fancy dress party food we’ve seen is a ‘school dinner’ set up where people served themselves with sausages, chips and even punch from those big square bain marie containers (you can hire stuff like that from catering suppliers and from Waitrose).