Thursday 3rd March marked the 25th anniversary of World Book Day, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate the occasion across the school.

We invited staff and students to come to school for the day dressed as their favourite book character and the results were fantastic as usual! Our panel of judges viewed the competition entrants over lunch time and the winning costumes will be announced in forthcoming assemblies.

Our Patron of Reading, Mary Stevens, also held her termly meetings with her two book groups. The Leap Ahead group, focusing on contemporary Young Adult fiction, shared their thoughts on their most recent read, 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson', while the Lit Explorers reflected on 'All the Light We Cannot See' and drew parallels with modern world conflicts. Both groups include students from across the school and we have been so impressed with both their commitment to reading these challenging texts and the thoughtfulness of their responses to them.

Throughout the week, our staff judges have been deliberating the winner of the book cover re-design competition. We had over 100 entries, which are currently being exhibited in the library. It is clear that students have put a lot of thought and effort in to their designs, so do come by to take a look.

Year 7 and 8 students have spent their Reading for Pleasure lessons this week writing entries to the short story competition. This is open to students across the school and the deadline is Friday 11th March. Book tokens will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries so it's definitely worth giving this one a shot!

It's been wonderful to have such a buzz around books, particularly as we haven't been able to celebrate this literary occasion in recent years. The winners of all the competitions will be announced in assemblies in a couple of weeks' time.