Our Celebration of Reading, World Book Day, in the junior school, has enabled a spectacular week of literary activities, bursting with creativity and a shared passion for reading. Many activities will continue into the next week. In English lessons, pupils across the school embraced their inner authors. Form One has been planning imaginative new chapters for The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Murphy, a timeless favourite. Upper One, inspired by Michael Morpurgo’s The Butterfly Lion, has been creating delightful mini-books featuring animal characters with a little sparkle of spring magic too. They also created ‘Rivers of Reading’ which showed the flow of their love for reading developing from the very first books that shaped them. Lower Two pupils ventured into the marvel of creative writing, unleashing their imaginations and Upper Two pupils, who are studying Macbeth, used an imaginary feather to write ‘missing’ pages from Shakespeare’s plays using paint and quills.
Meanwhile, in Library Club, our young librarians crafted fortune tellers with book recommendation themed questions and some added humour, enhancing everyone’s enjoyment and engagement with reading. The librarians have also been tour guides showing off our library, which they are very proud of. Our librarians added post-it-notes to their favourite books in the library, directing readers to some great book choices. Our buddies made and shared ‘recommended books’ bookmarks for each other.
Mrs Hardy gave a book-themed assembly to the lower school on Wednesday, explaining the history and importance of World Book Day, emphasising how it helps to foster a love of reading and connects readers worldwide. Pupils across the school presented their book vlogs, which sparked excitement and inspired peer book recommendations. It was heart warming to see the children’s enthusiasm grow as they shared their favourite stories. Books have truly come alive this week as pupils eagerly watched each other’s book vlogs and compiled wish lists of books they’d love to read next. Each day of the week has ended with a different teacher sharing their favourite books in a form time story time. Miss Mac introduced her ‘Leprechaun Stories’, Mr. Evans shared How To Live Forever by Colin Thompson, and Mrs. Hardy read a snippet from Oscar and the Lion by Adam Baron, which is Form One’s new class reader.
The highlight of the week was undoubtedly World Book Day itself, when The Devon Library Reading Service transformed our hall into a vibrant hub of ‘Reading Roundabouts.’ Pupils explored tables displaying a variety of book genres, discussing and reviewing them, and selecting their favourites for our school library. Thanks to this event, 260 exciting new books have been chosen and will soon be catalogued, ready to spark joy and curiosity in our readers and will be available to borrow from our library in the next week or so. This interactive event exposed children to a rich array of literature, helping them discover new interests and hone their reading skills.
The book-related fun will carry on into next week, when we welcome renowned author Fleur Hitchcock on Wednesday 12 March. Fleur is celebrated for her gripping mystery and adventure novels. Her books captivate young minds with thrilling plots and unforgettable characters. Pupils will have the chance to meet Fleur, hear about her journey as a writer, and delve into the worlds she creates. If you’re keen to explore her stories, her books are available to order via this link and senior school librarians will be selling them at break time on Wednesday in our playground:
Click here to order Fleur Hitchcock’s books
While we only dress up for World Book Day once every two years, this week has been a shining example of our unwavering commitment to nurturing a lifelong love of reading. Here’s to countless more adventures within the pages of a book!
