From the Gruffalo to Alice in Wonderland – World Book Day celebrations in Westbury

PUPILS across the Westbury area celebrated this year’s World Book Day in style as children (and staff) dressed up as their favourite book character to mark the national event.

Schools taking part included Bitham Brook Primary School, Westbury CofE Primary School, Bratton Primary School and Westbury Junior School. The Westbury Library put on a special event to celebrate the day by inviting children in for a special Gruffalo story-time that brought the tale to life, complete with library staff dressed up as the furry beast.

Westbury CofE Junior School 

Children and staff at Westbury CofE Junior School celebrated World Book Day and their love of reading by inviting parents into the school to share a book with their child, and pupils were encouraged to dress as their favourite character.

Year 6 class teacher and English subject leader, Rebecca Young, said, “We have a strong culture of reading for pleasure at school, so it was a wonderful excuse to dedicate a whole day to our favourite books. We set up a mini bookshop where every child went home with a free book and swapped classes to share stories.”

Bitham Brook

Pupils at Bitham Brook took the celebrations to another level as they took the whole week to learn more about reading and literature. The week started off with the school hosting a bedtime story night which saw children take part in a number of story themed activities.

“The children also had a visit from children’s author Anthony Burt,” said a school spokesperson. “Anthony has written books and scripts for Nickelodeon, Disney, Dreamworks, BBC and Paramount just to name a few! Anthony spent the morning with the children and even gave a first reading of a brand-new book he has just written.

“He spoke to the children about how he became a writer and inspired the next generation of authors from Bitham Brook. The children also studied and created their own fiction and non-fiction books.”

Bratton Primary School

Bratton Primary School pupils also had a week-long celebration – and staff took the opportunity to get creative too!

A school spokesperson says, “The children loved dressing up as a book character and seeing the wonderful efforts of the Bratton staff team too! We also had a really fun filled celebration assembly with our special visitor The Queen of Hearts!

“From decorated doorways which showed the class favourite book, virtual author visits, the internal book swap to allow children the chance to try a new book for free, book character designing and a guess who bookcase competition; it’s certainly been a wonderful week, and a special thanks to Mrs Hawke, Meerkat class teacher for organising everything. What a fabulous effort made by everyone and a super week to celebrate the love of reading at Bratton, it’s been really lovely to witness so much colour and creativity around the school!

Westbury Leigh Primary School

In Westbury Leigh Primary School, pupils had a slightly different day as the theme for this year at the school was ‘snuggle up with a book’ which saw children spend the day dressed in their pyjamas and immersed in stories and activities.

“The day was packed full of events to inspire children to read for pleasure and enjoyment and in doing so increasing general knowledge and better understanding of other cultures,” said the school. “The day started with an assembly and the presentation prizes for our sponsored read challenge which raised £875 to help replenish the school library with new and exciting books.

“Early years classes held a teddy bears picnic and listened to stories with hot chocolate; Key Stage 1 took part in ‘The Great World Book Day Draw Along’ with the hilarious and much-loved book character, Dave Pigeon; and Key Stage 2 participated in the ‘The Great Big Footy and Booky Quiz’. We finished off the day with a whole school paired reading session with our oldest children supporting our youngest readers.”

“Hearing children read and reading stories to them is one of the most important gifts we can give,” said Mrs Grimsey, headteacher, “It has been an absolute delight to see children immersed in storytelling and book sharing- everyone loved it!”

Mrs Towler, reading and phonics lead explains, “Parents, carers and other family members can make a whopping difference to children in supporting their children, it’s never too early to start reading together – whether it’s reading aloud to your child, talking about pictures, or sharing ideas, modelling reading, showing how you enjoy reading and surrounding your child with books at home – visiting the library, browsing the shelves and spending time together.

“Learning to read is one of the most important skills a child can learn.  As a school we are passionate about helping every child to have a love of reading which will support them through a life of learning.”

Westbury Library

Westbury Library had a visit from the Gruffalo at Westbury library. The very popular children’s storybook by Julia Donaldson was brought to life by Basil the librarian with the help of the team from Spurgeons Wiltshire Children’s Centres. All the children happily joined in with the story and were able to meet the real Gruffalo at the end of the story time.

Basil said, “Julia Donaldson is one of my favourite children’s authors and I love reading the Gruffalo. It was a delight to so many little Gruffalos in the audience.”

Carl Houghton from Spurgeons said, ““A massive thank you to Westbury Library for including us in their Gruffalo Storytime event, it was exciting to see the Gruffalo come to life. You can join us for more events and opportunities to bring your little ones along by visiting our Wiltshire Children’s Centre Facebook page to see what’s happening and by visiting out website at www.wiltshirechildrenscentres.org.uk”

A library spokesperson said, “We had a lovely story time, listening to Basil reading The Gruffalo and then the Gruffalo appeared! It was very exciting to meet the Gruffalo. Thank you to the Wiltshire Children’s Centre for coming along. We now have a regular fun and free Story Time on Saturday mornings at 10.30am at Westbury Library, no booking needed.”