The Joy of Books

Harrodians across the School shared the joy and drama of books this World Book Day, from dressing up as their favourite story characters to donating books to the Children's Book Project. 

First thing in the morning before lessons started, the Junior Library and other communal spaces around the school were full of pairs of pupils reading to each other, above. This weekly school activity is called buddy reading and it matches older pupils with younger ones to help them with their reading. It took place as usual on Thursday, the only difference being that this Thursday was World Book Day and the occasional reader wore fancy dress!

Next up was a fantastic Pre-Prep Book Character assembly hosted, much to the horror of the children, by Mrs Trunchbull and Captain Hook(e) - a dastardly but dynamic duo! Appearing as a double act Mrs Walker and Mr Hooke kept everyone on the edge of their seats as they tried to out-scare one another.

Each of the Pre-Prep classes and their teachers were then invited to the stage to hold up their favourite books and tell the audience which characters they had come dressed as. It was clear how much effort had gone into the amazing costumes worn by children and teachers alike.

Pre-Prep children also enjoyed a visit from author Camille Goodman, below, who read them her book entitled Mister Finch and the Queen and inspired them to plan and write their own stories. She signed copies of her book and answered lots of questions about being an author.

At morning break, other literary figures started to appear around the school. From TinTin to Anne of Green Gables, from Chicken Little to Nazgûl (Lord of the Rings), everyone had fun guessing the book characters behind the costumes!

Harrodian teachers also love an excuse to dress up and pose as their favourite books or characters in them, and they rose exuberantly to the challenge. The English department dressed up as characters from Peter Pan, the Drama team as 101 Dalmations, Art teachers were inspired by Mr Men and Little Miss books, our Science staff came dressed as The Cat in the Hat, some of the History team came as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Media/Film Studies team as the protagonists from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Geography as the Atlas and Lower Prep teachers as characters from Harry Potter. 

During English lessons pupils wrote stories and book reviews, some of our 11s enjoyed story time in the library with our librarian Brenda and in other subject lessons, teachers challenged their classes to the occasional DEAR (drop everything and read!). Pupils in our Upper Prep (11s and 12s) enjoyed a mega World Book Day quiz and our 15s Prefects visited the Pre-Prep to read them stories, below.

A collection of impressive and artistic World Book Day projects, crafted at home by our Lower Prep pupils, were brought to school and displayed in the Main Hall, below. Our 8s pupils designed and created a room for their favourite book character, the 9s made a series of clues to help others guess their book and the 10s designed and created sets for their favourite book. The winners will be announced next week as they are still being decided!

Our librarians Brenda and Celia, below, were busy overseeing buddy reading and welcoming keen readers to the library all day, either during break time or English lessons. No book day would be complete without a community focus or theme – as decided on and organised by them – and this year's was "Give a Book". A target of 1000 books was set and it already looks like many more than this have been collected with more still coming in. All of the books will be donated to the Children's Book Project, a charity that distributes books to disadvantaged children across London.