World Book Day lifts St Mary’s spirits during lockdown

Children at St Mary’s Kindergarten, Lower School and Senior School immersed themselves in World Book Day 2021 on Thursday 4 March with a range of fun-filled activities.

St Mary’s girls dressed as much-loved book characters and got involved in tasks including designing props and settings for their favourite books, sharing their favourite stories, reading in unusual locations and artistically creating book tokens and jacket covers.

At the Lower School, the Year 3 girls made scrumptious fruit kebabs, inspired by The Hungry Caterpillar story while in Year 6, the girls chose to imagine what it might be like if characters from different stories collided (think Harry Potter meets Winnie the Witch). There were live author broadcasts to listen to as well as stories shared in French and Spanish. One of the highlights of the day was the Masked Reader in which a range of staff members (brilliantly disguised) read an extract from a book for the children to identify.

Joining the girls in Years 7, 8 and 9, staff at the Senior School also dressed up and shared book recommendations with their students and fellow colleagues.

St Mary’s Principal, Mrs Hilary Vipond said: “We felt it was important to arrange a day off timetable to celebrate reading and books at St Mary’s Lower School. The girls have worked extremely hard during this period of lockdown, and before they return to school on 8 March, they deserved this opportunity to explore their love of reading. Our pupils perform at over twice the national average in spelling and grammar, reading and writing and we strive to ensure our education is brilliantly balanced, seeking to provide opportunities for the girls to grow and develop wherever we can.”

Despite the current lockdown restrictions with activities taking place virtually, the children fully embraced their love of reading.