Morpeth author promotes inclusivity for World Book Day

Louise Dodds visited youngsters at St Robert’s Catholic First School, where she read from her latest book, The Owl Who Hooted Happiness, which promotes inclusivity and diversity.

Her first title, Perfectly Paced, was inspired by her four-year-old son, Nathaniel, who was fitted with a pacemaker at birth.

“Louise came into school to read her book to the children in an assembly, and she then conducted workshops for all the children from Nursery up to Year 4,” said Jen Sykes, Deputy Headteacher at St Robert’s, part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust.

Other book-themed activities also took place during the course of the day, including quizzes and competitions, a fancy dress parade, and library visits.

“The Year 3 and 4 children took part in The Great Big Footy and Booky Quiz, which was supported by the National Literacy Trust,” continued Mrs Sykes. “It was a fun, engaging, and interactive quiz, which introduced pupils to a range of ways to enjoy reading.

“The Year 2, 3, and 4 children also took part in the BBC’s Live Lesson, which was designed in partnership with World Book Day to inspire reading for pleasure. During the lesson, there were special author guests, and the presenters journeyed across Bradford on the National Literacy Trust’s Bradford Stories Bus, gathering book recommendations from local children.

“The children took part in a special live moment when children in schools across the UK read a book they love for 60 seconds, all at the same time.

“All the children also visited the school library, which was a cosy reading zone for the day, where they recommended books to their friends and where they learnt about how to choose books.”

In addition, Year 2 pupils learnt poems to perform to the other children, while the whole school discussed their favourite fictional characters in the ‘Ultimate Character Champion Battle’, and made models of them from craft materials.

St Robert’s also put a creative twist on the practice of dressing up for World Book Day.

“Traditionally, at St Robert’s, we have dressed up as book characters, but we tried something new this year,” explained Mrs Sykes.

“All children were asked to come to school dressed as an adjective in order to promote the use of expressive vocabulary. This links to our writing scheme, which focuses on the use of precise vocabulary to build a picture in our reader’s mind.

“We had a parade in our school assembly of the children dressed as adjectives. Staff took part too.”

Other BBCET schools celebrating World Book Day included St John Vianney Catholic Primary in Denton and St Aidan’s Catholic Primary in Ashington.

“World Book Day encourages children to read for pleasure, which is essential for developing lifelong reading habits,” added Mrs Sykes.

“When children read for pleasure, they tend to improve their literacy skills, comprehension, and vocabulary. It helps to create an emotional connection to books, making reading feel like an enjoyable activity rather than a chore.”