The annual celebration of reading and story telling that is World Book Day made a welcome return to school. The long running event gives us a powerful opportunity to encourage all our students in their reading.
English lessons for students in Years 7 to 9 were visited by Mystery Readers, who read an extract of a book that meant a lot to them.
Deputy Headteacher Mrs Black chose The Worst Witch by Gill Murphy – “a really funny book which was one of the first I read independently.”
Teacher of History Miss Baker read from Running Wild by Michael Murpurgo. She said, “It was my favourite book at school and I loved the adventure that it told. It was really special reading it to Year 9 students, especially when a few wanted to read the book themselves to find out what happened next.”
Mrs Coope in PE read from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and said, “I love this book because when I read it as a child I felt very blessed to have two brothers as in the story, if there was no male heir the girl would be at risk of losing her home if she did not marry. I also liked it because women now have a choice of who to marry, and are able to work and be independent and in the book unfortunately they did not have these rights.”
And Headteacher Mr Cregg introduced students to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which was chosen because of its unique structure and variety of literary genres.
We know that some students need some encouragement to read; The students’ £1 book tokens, given out free during Welcome & Wellbeing sessions, enable them to pick up a book for a reduced price from various bookshops, including Waterstones in Oldham town centre.
Did you grab a Golden Ticket?
With an idea inspired by the world of Willy Wonka, dozens of Golden Tickets were placed around the school for students to collect.
Just one ticket each though, because to possess a Golden Ticket entitled the holder to a free book. The young readers got to choose from over 100 titles from a diverse range of authors.
How reading stories brings hospital joy
Reading for pleasure is a wonderful thing in itself, but what if reading can raise money for an amazing cause. This is just what is achieved by our involvement in Readathon.
Our students’ sponsorship efforts will help to raise an impressive total, as they dive into novels, short stories, magazines, even blogs and newspapers. The deadline for reading and collecting sponsorship money is Friday 26th April, so there is still plenty of time for students to read what they enjoy.
The money raised helps children in hospitals to access their own favourite reads. New books are bought for the children to read and the charity also pays for children’s authors to visit hospitals to read their stories.
Ms Razaq said, “We are very proud of the students’ efforts in support of this fantastic cause and we want to thank everyone who has sponsored them.”
