Feb / Mar · Holi
Holi Colour Run Powder
We send the colour powder. You pick the morning, mark the course and run it yourselves.
- Key stages
- EYFS to KS2
- How long a wave takes
- About 25 minutes per class wave
- How much powder
- Around 40kg per 100 children
- How it works
- Powder delivered — you run the event
How it works
Ordering
Tell us how many children
Powder is worked out on headcount — roughly forty kilos per hundred taking part. Give us your numbers and your date and we will quote before anything is sent, so you are not paying for colour you will not open.
Delivery
The powder arrives at school
It comes to your school office ahead of your date, with the product specification so your office has it on file. Unopened powder keeps in a dry store, so ordering early costs you nothing if the weather moves your date.
Before the day
You plan the run
The course, the running order, the risk assessment and the letter home are yours to write — you know your field, your year groups and your families. Most schools mark a loop of around a hundred metres and space three or four colour stations along it.
On the morning
Your staff work the stations
Adults on the stations rather than children, throwing low towards shoulders and backs, and classes going out in waves rather than all at once. Leaving an outside line clear of every station lets a child run the whole course and stay clean.
Afterwards
Shake off, wash down, sweep up
Children shake off at the end of the loop, wash hands and faces, and change out of PE kit before going back inside. Cornflour powder brushes off dry clothing and rinses out at forty degrees.
We send the colour; everything else is yours.
What pupils will learn
- Why Holi is played with colour: spring arriving, the winter crop in, and a day when rank and status are set aside
- Holika Dahan, the bonfire on the eve of the colour day, and how the two nights belong to one festival
- How Holi is marked in northern India and by Hindu families in UK towns and cities
- Pacing a marked course, running as part of a wave, and holding a route without cutting it
- Following safety instruction outdoors: what to do at a station, and when to stand clear of one
- That taking part is a choice, and how a class makes room for someone who takes it differently
Curriculum links
EYFS to KS2
- PE, KS1
- Master basic movements including running, and take part in co-operative physical activity outdoors alongside the whole class.
- PE, KS2
- Take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges within a team, and run over a set distance with control and sensible pacing.
- RE, agreed syllabus
- Hindu belief and practice through festival: what Holi celebrates, the story of Holika, and why the colour is thrown on everyone alike.
- PSHE
- Taking part safely in a physical activity with a clear choice about how far to join in, and respecting a classmate who chooses differently.
What we send
- Food-grade, cornflour-based colour powder, free of metal-based dyes
- Enough of it for your headcount — around forty kilos per hundred children taking part
- A choice of colours, so each station on your course can be a different one
- The product specification, for your office file and your own risk assessment
What you'll need to run it
- An outdoor field or hard-standing with room for a loop of around a hundred metres — colour powder is not something to run indoors
- Tubs or buckets to decant the powder into at each station, and scoops and gloves for the adults working them
- Cones, tape or line marking for the course, and a running order for your classes
- Your own risk assessment and letter home — we send the powder specification to write them from, not the documents themselves
- An adult on every station and two to set the course out, which for most schools is the PE lead and a handful of TAs
- Children in PE kit or old clothes they can go home in, outdoor taps or a wash-down point, and a towel plan
- A dry day and a fallback date: wet powder marks paving, and unopened powder keeps in a dry store
- A note of any child with asthma, eczema or a sensory need, so their route is planned rather than improvised
When to book
Feb / Mar
Holi follows the lunar calendar and typically falls in February or March. We'll confirm the exact date closer to booking.
Reviews for our workshop team
What schools say about our Holi workshops
“Highly recommend the African mask workshop! It's one of the highlights of the Year 5 calendar. Well worth every penny”
Joanne Netto “What a great experience for the children! Ivan was amazing at keeping their interest and making the drumming session as active and exciting as possible.”
Demelza Jones “A great workshop. Fantastic resources and Chris was great with the children. They were engaged throughout and talked about it for ages afterwards. This is the third time we have used them and they never disappoint!”
Julie Gill “Fantastic workshops for primary school children - the facilitators Emma for African drumming and Naomi for dance workshops were friendly, skilled and provided a very enjoyable experience for the children. Thank you!”
Aleksandra Dass “We have had a number of experiences from the Education Group and are always impressed by the quality of the workshops. We return to them time after time because we know that the planning, content and age-appropriateness of their sessions are absolutely right for the children.”
Kate Baguley “Our infant school aged pupils enjoyed the Maypole experience and were amazed to see the maypole in the middle of their playground. The teacher was fantastic with our young children and we all managed to come away from our sessions feeling we had learnt something rather wonderful!”
St Peter's
Questions schools ask
What exactly do we get?
Colour powder, sized to your headcount, and its product specification. That is all of it. The course marking, the tubs and scoops, the risk assessment and the letter home are yours — we found schools already had cones and buckets, and would rather write their own paperwork than adapt somebody else's. It keeps the price to the powder alone.
Do you send someone to run it?
No. Nobody from us attends a colour run — your own staff run it on a morning that suits you. If you would like a facilitator on site, our Indian dance and diya painting sessions are both led by one.
How much powder do we need?
Around forty kilos per hundred children taking part. Tell us your numbers when you order and we send that much, so you are not left guessing or paying for colour you will not open.
Is the colour powder safe, and does it come out?
It is food-grade and cornflour-based, made for this use and free of metal-based dyes. It brushes off skin and hair and washes out of clothing at forty degrees. The specification comes with it, so your office has it on file before the date.
Do you provide a risk assessment?
No — you write your own, and we send the product specification to write it from. Schools tell us their own template, signed by their own head, is what their governors want anyway.
Can we run it indoors if the weather turns?
We would not. Wet powder marks paving and grass, and indoors it settles on floors and soft furnishings rather than blowing away. Pick a fallback date when you plan it; unopened powder keeps in a dry store, so nothing is wasted if you have to move.
Can a child take part without being covered in colour?
Yes, if you plan for it. Leaving an outside line that follows the full course clear of every station lets a child run the whole thing and stay clean. Children on it often take the counting job at the start instead.
We send the colour powder. You pick the morning, mark the course and run it yourselves.
Tell us the date you have in mind and we'll come back within one working day with options for your school.