World Book Day is upon us. Every year school’s all over the world celebrate the timeless hobby of reading a book and Bassaleg is no exception. On the 7th of March 2024, students and teachers alike dressed in wonderful costumes to create an amazing environment unlike anything else.
The amazing World Book Day started on the 23rd of April, 1995, and was created by UNESCO. World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. The first World Book Day in the UK and Ireland took place in 1997 to encourage young people to discover the pleasure of reading. It is a worldwide celebration of books and reading. World Book Day changes lives through a love of books and shared reading. Charities get given donations as a way to also help children and families who wouldn’t normally be able to buy those books.
Today, around the site, pupils have had the opportunity to experience various activities such as: dressing up, a book fair, intriguing competitions, including a drawing competition. Aswell as these exciting activities, most of the English department arrived at school this morning dressed as different Harry Potter characters. The pupils have seen an incredible amount of different teachers' costumes, this includes Miss Parfait as Scooby Doo, Miss Crimmins as the Queen of Hearts and Miss Redfern as a life size globe.
In our opinion, Connor Stokes, who dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, won the pupil costume award for 2024. For our teacher nominations, a group costume of the Mystery Gang were the winners featuring Ms Parfit, Ms Greentree and Ms Gately. All of the entries were amazing but these stood out with their creativity and skill. Well done everyone!
We interviewed Zak Rashid, 14, who was ‘amazed by all costumes on display and many were funny and many were amazing’. Mr Rashid also rated the day a 10/10. On the other hand, Rhys Stroud, 13, rated the day a 8/10 as he didn’t get to read in English. But he rated the day as 8/10 because of Max Woods’ Spiderman costume and Ms Chambers as Coraline. Mr Rashid and Mr Stroud both agreed that the day was amazing as the charity gave pupils a voucher for a £1 book.
On World Book Day, students also interviewed teachers Mrs Dale, Mr Wheeler and Miss Scott. Mrs Dale was asked why reading was important and she replied, ‘reading is important as it can help you to learn new words and develop vocabulary.’ Students then went on to ask Mr Wheeler what his favourite book was, ‘Kenzukey’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.’ Miss Scott also said that, ‘I enjoy celebrating World Book Day because it is nice to celebrate things you are passionate about.’