In November, the Junior School celebrated all things reading as the whole school came together for the 2025 Book Festival. Stories were shared throughout the school, with classes reading with one another, teachers sharing their favourite childhood books, book-related crafts and of course a day of dressing-up and celebrating students favourite books with the Book Oscars.
The girl had five different authors come to visit the school. Adam Stower – author of Murray and Bun – delighted the First School with his stories and illustrations. They created their own monster together – Slimey Angel Bob – who now has pride of place in the Library. The girls created their own versions of Murray and laughed a lot! Gales of laughter were heard throughout the school when Jack Meggitt-Phillipps shared his Beast and the Bethany books with us. He utterly embodied his characters, and the girls were spellbound as he fully acted out the first chapter.
Years 5 and 6 met Janeen Hayat whose debut novel – Evie and Maryam’s Family Tree – has flown off the shelves and certainly struck a chord. They learnt to treasure those family stories throughout the generations, and the importance of tolerance and respect. Jenny McLachlan kicked off the second week of the Book Festival, sharing her Land of Roar books with the Lower School. She took students on adventures with dragons, with several girls on stage acting out some key parts of the first in the series. She even brought her own dragon along with her!
Our final author was Gareth P Jones, who not only brought his enthusiasm but also his ukelele to the whole school. The First School were treated to a musical version of his book Rabunzel, with Years 3 and 4 discovering Cindergorilla. Years 5 and 6 got the opportunity to ask all the questions they wanted about The Thornwaite Inheritance, Solve your own Mystery. Gareth even treated them to a musical sing-a-long rendition of Death and Ice-cream.
Copies of all of these books have flown off the shelves since, with a hefty queue for all of them!
The Festival culminated in the Book Oscars, where, after several weeks of nominating and voting, the winners were announced. Unfortunately the authors themselves were unable to join us for the awards, but staff ably collected them on their behalf! Congratulations to the following books and authors:
Favourite Book series : Harry Potter
Favourite character: Harry Potter
Favourite front cover: The School for Good and Evil
Funniest Book: Bunny vs Monkey
Favourite Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner and Azkaban
Reflecting on the week, Mrs Hudson, Junior School Librarian says:
It’s been a joy to see the girls’ enthusiasm for all things literary during the Festival, and the Library is full every long break with students reading alone and together – sharing stories and dreaming of other worlds.
