Today we celebrated UNESCO World Book Day at Alice Smith. We began the day with a brilliant assembly. Our students were given the message that books are magical and reading is a superpower. We watched an inspirational video from childrens’ laureates across the world who spoke of the importance of books and the role that reading has played in helping us deal with these challenging times. Some of our teachers also shared their favourite books with the students.
Did you know that World Book Day is on this day to coincide with the birthday of William Shakespeare? Today it is celebrated in over 100 countries.
At JB we had various activities happening to celebrate the day. These included;
- DEAR Bell: a bell rang at various times and everyone had to drop everything and read!
- Various book day activities in classrooms
- Book Bingo
Of course one of the most enjoyable aspects of Book Day was the amazing costumes that staff and students wore. It created such a lovely atmosphere around school. The most important aspect of today, however, is the message that reading is such an important skill to develop. Seeing students and staff reading; allowing a book to stretch their imaginations and take them on adventures was incredible. It also reminded me of the role we play as reading role models for our children. As I visited classrooms, I was also struck by the number of students who had books in their home language. In one class alone, I came across students with books in Russian, Dutch and Mandarin. It is very important that our students feel confident to share their language within our school. Today certainly brought us together as a community and I would not underestimate the positive feelings that today will bring for our staff and students.
Have a good weekend and please stay safe everyone.
Best wishes
Alan McCarthy
Editor's note: Check our twitter feed and Flickr for more pictures from #WorldBookDay2021