Celebrated in more than 100 countries, World Book Day encourages children to discover the joy of reading and provides everyone with the opportunity to celebrate their favourite books by dressing as beloved literary characters.

The morning began with a special Junior assembly, where staff revealed their costumes and pupils were challenged to guess the characters. Each member of staff had chosen a different Mr Men or Little Miss character, leading to plenty of laughter as Nurse Amy appeared as Mr Bump and Mrs Dedden as Mr Strong, among many others. Pupils also had the chance to take part in a lively costume catwalk, proudly showing off their own imaginative outfits.

At morning break, the fun continued with a Mr Men scavenger hunt, as Junior pupils searched the playground and surrounding areas to find as many hidden characters as possible.

In the afternoon, the Juniors enjoyed a rotation of creative activities. Pupils in Years 3 to 6 designed and decorated their own gingerbread house biscuits, created original Mr Men-style characters, and used their creative writing skills to invent wonderfully eccentric personalities. As a class, they then used AI to bring their ideas to life visually – producing some wonderfully bizarre results, including monocled French baguettes and pigs enthusiastically eating pain au chocolat!

Year 6 pupils also tried their hand at interior design, recreating the wonderfully dreadful home of Mr Gum in miniature form, complete with carpets “the colour of sadness” and mouldy curtains. Meanwhile, Mrs Smith hosted a lively game of book-themed charades, challenging pupils to guess famous book titles.

Over in the Reception woods and playground, children from Reception to Year 2 enjoyed their own range of activities. They created potato-people book characters, roasted marshmallows on the fire, and played musical pass-the-parcel. The prizes included beautifully designed bookmarks created especially for them by the Year 5 pupils.

Earlier in the day, Year 3 pupils also enjoyed a peer-supported reading session outside in the sunshine, reading alongside Year 6 pupils in the glorious spring weather.

In Nursery, the celebrations were just as lively. Children across Babies, Toddlers and Pre-School – along with staff – dressed as their favourite book characters. There were several appearances from the Gruffalo, as well as Mary Poppins, Harry Potter and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was wonderful to see everyone fully embracing the spirit of the day.

In the Senior School, a range of activities has been taking place throughout the week to mark World Book Day. While there was no dressing up, pupils have still enjoyed celebrating reading, including spending time reading quietly in the sunshine in the woods. Mrs Larby, our librarian, and Mrs Weight, Head of English, have also organised a number of exciting competitions, including a book review challenge for staff and pupils, as well as launching Book Bingo for KS3.

Notable staff costumes across the day included the entire Junior Early Years team dressed as characters from The Magic Faraway Tree, as well as a particularly impressive appearance from Mrs Dye as a very beardy Mr Gum.

World Book Day once again proved to be a wonderful celebration of reading, creativity and imagination across the whole school community.