Celebrating the Joy of Reading! – World Book Day 2022

By Sam Kail-Dyke – Wessex Learning Trust

If you visited one of our schools earlier this term, you may have been presented with a sight that was a little out of the ordinary! Instead of learners in immaculate uniform, on Thursday 3rd March, you would have instead seen a parade of incredible book characters that had been brought to life as our schools celebrated World Book Day 2022!

In the 25th year of celebrations, the Trust was very excited to take part with a range of activities going on across our schools:

Children at Shipham First School had a wonderful day themed around the idea of a ‘Book at Bedtime’ and enjoyed pyjamas, hot chocolate and biscuits as they engaged with some favourite stories. Activities included writing author biographies, creating bookmarks, taking part in book scavenger hunts, and older children reading stories to the younger children.

Meanwhile at Draycott and Rodney Stoke First School they spread their literary celebrations across the week, with children in the Skylarks Class enjoying having a mystery reader in their class each day including a parent who read a story in Romanian, the PE teacher, the Forest School Teacher and a mermaid! Elsewhere in the school, children had sessions with authors Axel Scheffler and Nick Sharratt, and had a go at writing their own stories and producing their own books (with beautiful front covers).

At Kings of Wessex staff got in on the dressing up action and showed off some spectacular costumes! For instance, the art department went full ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the Science department dressed up as Mr. Men, both ensuring that lessons looked a little different for the day! Beyond dressing up, learners also researched some newly released books and voted as to which they would most like the school to buy to add to the library.

At Winscombe Primary School, as well as dressing up the children buddied with other classes in the school to share stories and books together. They also took part in a Where’s Wally hunt around the school and a number of activities based around quotes from the book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy.

Finally, at Hugh Sexey Middle School there was no shortage of activities to get involved with. As well as dressing up, children were able to enjoy everything from a library book and MC Grammar Rap quiz, to designing a menu for their favourite villain or superhero, or drawing an alternative book cover which incorporated themselves into the design, or taking part in a book swap.

Here at the Trust we recognise that reading is one of the most important skills children can develop as they grow up, so we are immensely proud to support the annual World Book Day initiative – particularly in its 25th year. Commenting on the day’s events, Chief Executive Gavin Ball said:

“I am immensely proud to see so many of our children and schools getting involved with World Book Day once again this year. It is always a magical time to be in and around schools, and I sincerely hope that once again the activities children have taken part in this year will encourage them to develop a love of reading that will last a lifetime”.

Gavin Ball – Chief Executive

We hope that seeing all our learners getting involved with reading will have inspired you to pick up a new book yourself! You can find out more about World Book Day, and discover some new books to try on their website here

You can check out more photos of our schools getting into the World Book Day spirit in the gallery below: