By Ms Rogers (LRC Manager)

Designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries. Their mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. Stating that “Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success” the organisation is dedicated to promoting the academic advantages of regular reading.

Here at BGS, World Book Day is one of our many whole school events, allowing students across the School to celebrate the importance of stories, books and reading together. Activities included a fancy-dress parade, themed Peter Rabbit lunch, House Competitions and an LRC ‘Classics’ inspired lunch parlour.

Mrs Graves (Head of English) added: “After the wonderful creative responses last year, the English department was thrilled to be able to launch the World Book Day Door challenge for Year 7 again this term. Supporting the LRC focus on the classics for this year’s celebrations, students attended an assembly on the topic of What makes a classic a classic? Each form in Year 7 has been working to select a text which they think is a modern classic. Their task is then to either recreate a book cover on their form room door, or design their own interpretation of the cover based on their ideas about the themes of the text.

“The doors are starting to come together beautifully, and it’s very exciting to walk around the school and try and guess which book it is based on how the display develops. We look forward to being able to announce the winning form after Easter. Excitingly, there are now also over a hundred students across Years 7-9 who are signed up to the Read to Succeed scheme, so we hope that World Book Day has provided some inspiration to pick up a book and get one of those tasks signed off!”

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the students and parents who created some amazing costumes and supported our World Book Day celebrations, and it was a real pleasure to see the school filled with characters including the BFG, The Cat in the Hat, Dorian Grey, Aliens in Underpants and an assortment of little Misses.

All students have been provided with a World Book Day £1 gift voucher. Students can swap their £1 token for any of the World Book Day books or get £1 off a full price title of any full price book or audiobook (as long as the book or audiobook costs at least £2.99 at participating booksellers. Please visit the World Book Day site here for full details.

Please visit our gallery for some wonderful images highlighting the day’s events and activities. Click here.