Thursday 6 March was World Book Day and as well as ensuring £1 book tokens went out to every year 7 and 8 student, Highfields saw a whole host of activities and events across the week, including book swaps, quizzes, word searches, scavenger hunts and the battle of Book Vs Film.
We had the return of the staff lanyard hunt, with twenty members of staff harbouring fugitives from the library- book characters who were on the loose! Congratulations to Rosie Tyrer-Wylde in 7C who was the first to complete the challenge! Our lower school students also put their creative skills to the test in English lessons by turning either a wooden person bookmark into a favourite book character, or a miniature wooden door into a doorway to their favourite book world. There were some brilliant interpretations of different books and characters, and the students really enjoyed the task. Several of their pieces were donated and can now be seen on display in the library.
The Readathon is also back! Year 7 are being challenged to read as much as possible in two weeks, while raising money through sponsorship for the charity Read for Good. Parents can help support students in their reading not only by sponsoring them, but by discussing their reading list and target, or by reading along with them.
As an exciting new event for World Book Day, Highfields was pleased to welcome local author Charlie Hill to host an event with hard working year 7 and 8 students. Several students purchased copies of Charlie’s book, The Burning Sword, which he was kind enough to sign for them, and as part of the workshop the whole group were challenged to come up with ideas for a short story. There were so many brilliant ideas being shared, some of them very prescient, from murder mysteries and romances to conspiring governments and the dangers of AI and self-driving cars!
Finally settling on two young people who travel to an island to investigate a virus cloud that seems to take over people’s minds, our students were given the task to go and write a short story based on that concept.
“I was incredibly pleased with the success of our author event this year, the students involved came up with some really interesting ideas for short stories and I look forward to reading any that are finished and submitted to the library. I imagine Charlie Hill has inspired a few of our budding authors to keep working, keep practicing, and keep pushing to improve their skills. I was also impressed by the doors and characters students have created, they will certainly make the library brighter”
- Miss Hallam, Librarian
“It was lovely to see how excited students were in completing the lanyard hunt and having discussions about the books/characters with members of staff. There was real buzz in the library with lots of students bringing in their book swap tokens, happy to be selecting and taking home their 'new' books.
English staff said how engaged their classes were with the classroom activities which allowed students to be creative whilst also discussing the books they have enjoyed, either as a child or now. All of Year 7 and 8 understood the importance of the World Book Day charity and how they might 'read in their own way' to read for fun. A fantastic day had by all!”
- Miss Squire, Head of Year 7 and 8 English
The deadline for the Readathon is Friday 21 March, with a donation submission deadline of Friday 28 March. Anyone who would like to sponsor a year 7 can make their donation at https://readathon.my.salesforce-sites.com/sponsor/R4G_SponsorPupilFindSchool1
Details on where to spend book tokens can be found at https://www.worldbookday.com/books-and-tokens/books/participating-retailers/
