my child has a fancy dress competition at school. the theme is nature but we are told not to use hired costumes. i have decided to make a lion please advice about dress?

I guess the key to getting a lion costume right is the mane. The more realistic the material you use, the better.

For example, you could take 2 curly ginger wigs and attach them together around your kid's face, but that may look unconvincing and slightly scary.

So where you source this 'mane material" will be crucial.

Maybe there's a haberdashers or textiles store near you? If not, you could look out for thrift shops/vintage stores that sell fake fur coats/scarves and see if you can fashion something out of that....

For the face, I'd recommend just going with facepaint. It's simple, cheap and effective. Look up designs, don't improvise. There are plenty of kid's party idea websites around, they should be able to help you out.