Book Week - a whole school celebration of reading

Immediately after the holidays we were straight into celebrating Book Week right across the school. In High School on Monday we kicked off with an assembly delivered by thirteen of our L4 girls who shared their experiences of reading their favourite books and encouraged others to dive into a book and open up a world of ideas.

Pupils from both Prep and High School enjoyed the treat of listening to stories with Mrs Sharrock in the Cox-Simpson Library, where she shared some of her favourite books from the last thirty years. Everyone was then invited to write their favourite choices on the Library’s special “Fantastic Favourites” wall. By the end of the week the wall was completely covered with a rich variety of titles and authors, from “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” to “Mallory Towers” and from Lucy Christopher to Jacqueline Wilson.

Girls were challenged by the Form Quiz on Wednesday morning, when they were asked to match objects to famous book characters. Extra points were also awarded for girls bringing their own character objects to school - everything from Paddington’s marmalade sandwich to Dorothy’s red shoes and plenty of Edward’s vampire teeth were seen. Quiz scores were generally very high and show that the girls’ knowledge of books is indeed thorough and diverse.

Pupils’ reading knowledge was also tested at Mr Swan’s Words’ Worth group which filled the library with discussion of literary delights. We are always impressed by the range of texts read by our girls and they are guaranteed to bring an enthusiasm to events such as this.

The week-long celebrations continued with the Books at Breakfast meeting when parents and pupils enjoyed sharing their personal much-loved stories and authors, and inspiring others to try their choices. It was wonderful to see pupils of all ages, from Prep and High school, exchanging ideas and discussing their love of reading. Staff also shared their favourite reading material from their youth. Enid Blyton was a popular choice of staff and pupils alike.

In English lessons, girls were encouraged to think of the process of producing a book from the initial author’s inspiration to the design of a book cover and the publication of the book itself. Girls designed new covers for their favourite books and wrote about their experiences of reading an inspirational story. They were given the opportunity to share extracts from their choices in class readings. Many girls found themselves with potential texts for holiday reading as a result.

Book Week was a fantastic start to this half term and energised the whole school with its focus on personal experiences and activities designed to encourage diversity of reading. Girls were certainly inspired by the events and clearly loved to share their thoughts and experiences with others. We look forward with great anticipation to next year’s Book Week which promises to be even better.