World Book Day has to be one of our favourite days of the spring term, as books and their brilliant characters spring to life in a wonderful celebration of stories and reading.
It is a day when you can step into a classroom to find the dinosaurs from Dinosaurs Love Underpants busy tackling maths problems, pass walking and talking pieces of food, all slightly chewed by The Hungry Caterpillar, bump into Cruella De Vil and 101 Dalmatians or follow a gaggle of highly animated minions as they go between lessons!
This year, as always, the competition was fierce between form groups as they aimed to be named the best-dressed characters from a chosen book. They now wait with bated breath until Monday, when the winners will be announced.
Boys also celebrated their love of reading through various activities and competitions throughout the day, along with some brilliant workshops. Boys in Y3 and Y4 were entertained and inspired in equal measure by our Patron of Reading, Steve Skidmore, who introduced Y3 boys to his iHero books and spoke with them about how he got into writing. Steve also shared some of his early writing, which made the boys laugh a lot but also showed them that we all have to start somewhere. For the boys in Y4, Steve spoke about ‘The 2 Steves’ Action Dogs books and then challenged them to come up with a new member of the team. Boys introduced their newly created ‘Action Dog’ to the rest of the year group, with Steve interviewing each dog before choosing the best to join the team.
Meanwhile, Sarah Hagger-Holt spoke to boys in Y5-Y8 about the importance of reading and how to formulate a story using the four Cs of change, character, conflict and conclusion, using her books and her interest in the themes of inclusivity and the LGBT community to illustrate and inspire. During her brilliant workshop, Sarah also immersed the boys in creating a plot for a Bedford School World Book Day story.
“A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.”