A Grand Celebration of Books and Reading

NCL’s Book Week, 27 February to 3 March, which incorporates World Book Day on 2 March, has become an eagerly awaited annual event on the school calendar. This is not surprising  as so much activity is packed into the week which is all about creating a ‘buzz’ around books and reading for pleasure.

This year’s activities in English included poetry writing in year 7, story writing in year 8 and character creation in year 9. However, events were not confined to the English department but spread across the whole college.

Staff delighted the students by dressing in costumes portraying characters from their favourite books. Voting for the ‘best dressed member of staff competition’ got everyone involved with talking about the books the characters came from. The students loved the spectacle created by a school full of literary characters!

Then, worthy of any TV show there was NCL’s version of the ‘Masked Voice’ featuring teachers reading out extracts from their favourite books and students being challenged to guess the teacher.

Form groups put their knowledge of literature to good use in creating fantastic designs for their classroom doors with students then voting for the best door.

Ashmeet, year 9 student, voices the views of many students:

“I think it is really good we talk about books across the school.”

A buzz around reading was certainly achieved during the week but here at NCL we have a year round focus on assisting our students to become expert readers and so we extend the fun and love of books generated during the week to motivate everyone to become a reader.