English Forever Week was celebrated as enthusiastically as ever at Bedford Girls’ School over the past few days.

The events kicked-off last Friday night (4th November) when Nunkie Theatre visited the School, with R M Lloyd Parry exciting with his mesmerising performances of two century-old ghost stories by the Victorian author, M R James.

On Monday (7th November) there was an all-day reading of Harry Potter, as teachers and students alike took their turn to tell the story of The Prisoner of Azkaban. The Sixth Form and teachers added a dash of colour to proceedings as they wore Harry Potter fancy dress.

The following day (Tuesday 8th November) saw the keenly contested poetry reading competition take place. Emily Polhill won the Year 7 event with her reading of The Pig by Roald Dahl, Masha Ermakova was triumphant in the Year 8 category with The Girl Who Lit The First Fire by Mandy Coe, while Eloise Toone proved to be the Year 9 winner after her recital of Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon.

Yesterday (Thursday 10th November) there was the inaugural Poetry Slam, where students and staff joined together to read and share their favourite poems and presented their own original writing.

The week drew to a close today (Friday) with a University Challenge-style English House quiz for Years 11-Upper Sixth.

*In more English news, Olivia Sergeant (Lower Sixth) has been named as a runner-up in the 2016 Beales Summer Holiday Writing competition. It was a nationwide competition run across all stores, and Olivia was praised for her high standard.