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Fancy dress

Our Fancy Dress competition will be back in 2027.

In partnership with our hospital charity, The Grand Appeal, our wards, departments and staff teams are invited to take part in our fancy dress competition every other year, the previous comptetion taking place in 2023. Patients and families are encouraged to join in with their wards/areas or simply cheer them on! 

The theme for 2025 was 'Imaginary Worlds'   - Congratulations to everyone who took part in this amazing day

There were 8 awards up for grabs! This is to provide more opportunities to win and encourage thought about different elements of the fancy dress event. All awards were based on judges' votes (except the Facebook award which was awarded based on engagement from our Facebook community):

  • The FancyDress Challenge Trophy; first place- Meadow ward, second place - Starlight ward and third place - Apollo ward.
  • Creativity Award - creative interpretation of theme - Starlight ward
  • Sustainability Award - use of resources, including environmentally friendly approach - Penguin ward
  • Patient Partnership Award - evidence of team working, including patients and families (patient facing areas only) -  Bluebell ward
  • Staff Engagement Award - engagement of all staff participants (non-patient facing areas) - LIAISE Family Support Team
  • The Facebook Trophy -   .

For photos, please visit our Facebook page.

The judges:

  • One patient or parent/carer representative
  • One member of The Grand Appeal team
  • One senior staff member 

The judges voting process:

Criteria for judging and the points available: 

  • Creative interpretation of theme (5)
  • Use of resources, including environmentally friendly approach (5) 
  • Evidence of team working including patients and families (patient facing areas only) (5) OR  
  • Engagement of all staff participants on the day (non-patient facing only) (5)
  • Judges extra discretion points (5)

Further informtion:

  1. Each judge ranks the teams/areas and allocates a maximum of 5 points per criteria/award category that applies to them. There will also be 5 extra discretionary points for any other aspects of a team's/area's fancy dress which they feel deserve noting. 
  2. Scores from all judges are added together to give a score out of 60. The highest score will confirm the winner of the Fancy Dress Challenge Trophy, together with prizes for second and third place. 
  3. The highest scores in the individual criteria/ award catergories will also receive an award. If this is the overall Challenge Trophy winner or a runner up, the award will go to the next highest scoring team/area, to avoid multiple awards per team/area. No team/area will recieve more than one award.
  4. In the event of tie, a decision will be made based on further deliberation by the judges.
  5. Photographs will be taken. All patients and families must consent to be in photos and sign a publicity consent form (these can be obtained by emailing bchinfo@uhbw.nhs.uk). Staff, families and patients should be aware that the images will be used for social media, Trust webpages as well as other hospital based media (reports, newsletters etc).  
  6. Photos of each participating team/ area will be posted on the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children Facebook page with a closing date of 1 week from the date of posting. Photos will be ranked according to number of likes to decide the winner of the Facebook award.

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You can find photos of our previous fancy dress competitions in our archives here or head to our Facebook page and search 'fancy dress' in the page search box to find more. For any further questions or queries please email bchinfo@uhbw.nhs.uk or call 0117 3428158.