We’ve had a fabulous time, participating in Book Week 2026. It’s been a great opportunity to explore everything that’s fun about engaging with books and reading. 

Thursday was World Book Day and pupils and staff were offered the opportunity to dress up as a book character or just arrive in comfy clothes, suitable for settling in and enjoying a good book. There were lots of Dr Seuss ‘Things’ amongst the staff and we were very impressed with the creative and exciting costumes worn by pupils. It definitely set the tone for a fun and exciting day!

In the morning, pupils heard familiar stories and fairy tales from readers in different languages as diverse as Albanian, British Sign Language, Cantonese, Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish and Ukranian. Pupils were challenged to listen out for repetitive sounds and make links to the images to follow the story and consider how words and language are used internationally. Thank you to the parent, pupil and staff volunteers who took part.

Windows around the school were decorated beautifully by different year groups, who took on the challenge of representing a book without using its title. We all enjoyed trying to guess the title from the clues given in the illustrations and excerpts chosen by pupils.

Throughout the day our Librarian, Mrs Hunt, became a travelling storyteller and visited the all the classrooms to share some of her favourite titles with pupils. And a phone call to all signalled a 10 minute DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) Session, allowing everyone to stop whatever they were doing and prioritise getting lost in a good book.

Pupils’ final creative flourish was an optional homework, which was an invitation to create and share a ‘Shelfie’- a way to represent their likes and interests in a model or representation of the books that we’d find on their perfect shelf. These were set up in the hall for everyone to visit.

It was a busy and exciting week and we’d like to thank everyone who played a part in making it so engaging- especially Ms Palos, who masterminded the event.