World Book Day 2021
Reading across the world
Thursday 4 March 2021 is World Book Day! What does World Book Day conjure up for you? Lots of children dressed up as characters from favourite books? Being able to get a free book by using your World Book Day voucher? World Book Day aims to change lives through a love of books and shared reading - they promote reading for pleasure.
At Cirencester Deer Park School members of our English Faculty and our Librarians love an excuse to dress up as a book character and obviously we are disappointed not be able to share our talents for 2021's World Book Day. So, looking back into our photo archive, can you work out, from the photographs below, the member of staff, the character and the book?
Since 2015 our Librarians have combined World Book Day with a Readathon, when pupils, generally in Years 7-10, are given the opportunity to spend half a day or whole day in our library, The PLC, reading. No lessons, just reading for the pleasure of reading! Reading and raising money through their Readathon for Read for Good, a local charity who provide books and stories for children in hospital across the country. It's a great opportunity for anyone who loves to read. Did you know that Deer Park is an Outstanding Readathon School?
"Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income."
This year, since most of our pupils are learning remotely on World Book Day, our pupils are being given the opportunity to take part in a number of book-related quizzes and activities, including the option to Browse a Virtual Library.
One of the core components of World Book Day is the distribution of £1 book vouchers to our younger pupils. There are 4 £1 books aimed at secondary school pupils - Skysteppers by Katherine Rundell, The River Whale by Sita Brahmachari, Sculduggery Pleasant: Apocalypse Kings by Derek Landy and Kill Joy by Holly Jackson. We hope to hand out WBD vouchers as soon as we can after pupils start returning to school during week commencing 8 March. WBD books should be accessible in large supermarkets and your local bookshop may be doing 'click and collect'.
We encourage everyone to read for at least 20 minutes every day. Did you read our 'Reading Room' article in January '21, which includes a number of recent and recommended reads?
So if you have found this last year a challenge (and let's face it, who hasn't at times), why not escape into a book and either live another life for a while or read about something you're interested in or passionate about?
Happy reading!