World Book Day 2023
On Thursday 2nd March, staff and students at Hathershaw celebrated World Book Day. Here’s an overview of the fun and exciting activities that took place throughout the week.
World Book Day Assembly
All year groups had a World Book Day assembly which highlighted the power of reading. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success. Reading has many academic and health benefits which impact a child’s life. Academic benefits of reading include increased knowledge, improved concentration, enhanced memory and the development of critical and analytical thinking skills. Reading has been linked to mental well-being as it can be relaxing, fun and improves your emotional health. During the assembly, students were given students were made aware of the various world book day books on offer this year and given book recommendations by staff to encourage them to read something new.
Masked reader
A selection of our staff have taken part in the masked reader challenge. Throughout the week, during form time, students have been shown a video of staff wearing masks and reading a short extract of a book. Students had to work together in their form groups and guess who each member of staff is and what book they were reading based on a few clues featured in the video. Students and staff have had a challenging time guessing the book title and staff member. In a couple of weeks students will be shown the reveal video and those that guessed correctly will win a prize.
Book Fair
To encourage reading for pleasure, a book fair was held in the library throughout the week at break and lunch time where students had the opportunity to choose a free book to take home. It was wonderful to see students fill the library and share recommendations with each other as they chose their books. Many took this as an opportunity to explore other genres and discover something new from the array of books that was on offer.
Author visit
Mark Illis, a novelist and writer of short stories visited Hathershaw on World Book Day. Mark delivered interactive workshops to students in the library where he shared his top tips for creative writing and talked about his various projects including his latest children’s novel ‘The Impossible’. Students were intrigued by the author’s talent. It was wonderful to see pupils so engaged, they all took inspiration from Mark’s writing techniques and left the workshop with pages filled with notes.
During break and lunch, students had the opportunity to meet Mark and speak to him on a one-to-one basis. Many took this opportunity to ask him about his various television and film projects, some asked for an autograph, and others asked for the author to read their writing. It was a fun and educational event for all.
