CHILDREN at Micklehurst All Saints CE Primary certainly got beyond the cover as they celebrated this year’s World Book Day.
In the latest column for The Correspondent, deputy headteacher and literacy co-ordinator Sarah Jarman tells just how pupils loved getting involved.
WORLD Book Day is always one of the highlights of the year at Micklehurst All Saints CE Primary School and 2023’s annual celebration of the joy of reading proved a real hit among our entire school community.
We are constantly striving to inspire a love of reading among all of our children and our curriculum is designed to immerse them in to a wide variety of literary worlds created by a diverse range of authors.
This year, World Book Day took place on Thursday, March 2 and we used the day as a further opportunity to focus on reading for pleasure and to explore the wide world of poetry.
On the day itself, our celebrations began in the school hall as we hosted our Book Swap Café.
For weeks, the children had been bringing to school a book from home that they no longer read and exchanging it for a Book Swap Token.
We were absolutely overwhelmed by the number of books donated to the event and the hall was fit to burst with books representing every genre and hundreds of authors – it was certainly a feast for the eyes and a real treat for our budding bookworms.
As World Book Day began, the children and their parents and carers eagerly filled the hall and used their tokens to choose new books that they could take home and enjoy.
The children absolutely loved taking part in our big book swap event and it proved to be a brilliant way to recycle hundreds of pre-loved books.
It’s an event we would definitely love to host again in the future in order to give our families even more opportunities to share stories and get excited about reading.
As World Book Day continued, we turned our attention to the world of poetry and every class excitedly prepared to participate in our Micklehurst Poetry Slam.
Throughout the week, each year group had been busy exploring a different poem and honing their performance poetry techniques ready to wow their audience.
As the event unfolded, each class proudly took to the stage and performed with great enthusiasm as they shared a wide range of poems including Michael Rosen’s The Outing and Roger McGough’s The Sound Collector amongst other lively collections.
Another World Book Day event designed to promote a love of reading was our Book Bingo.
At Micklehurst, we love a game of bingo and our children are well-versed in the lingo. With their dabbers at the ready, they keenly participated in a round of book bingo with literary-themed badges and bookmarks on offer for a line and a selection of books to choose from for a full house.
Of course, no World Book Day would be complete without taking home a book voucher and 2023 was no different.
However, we had an additional treat in store for every child at Micklehurst this year. We were delighted to gift each of them a copy of one of this year’s World Book Day books to take home in addition to their voucher.
Throughout March, each of our classes from Nursery to Year Six have participated in a Zoom session with an author.
The sessions were a brilliant opportunity to expose our children to a wide variety of authors representing different backgrounds and having written books from all different genres.
The children loved asking thought-provoking questions of the authors we spoke to and it was fantastic to see our learners inspired to write their own stories and discover what it takes to become a published author.
At Micklehurst, we see it as our mission to inspire our children to become lifelong readers and we place great importance on developing both the skills needed to read and a real passion for books.
Reading is a vital skill and research has shown that it improves concentration, reduces stress and promotes better academic performance.
It also provides children with an opportunity to explore new worlds and escape to new realms beyond their wildest imaginations.
Our World Book Day this year provided us with the perfect opportunity to celebrate everything that the world of literature has to offer and was fully embraced by our entire school community.