World Book Day

In the early 1990’s UNESCO founded and promoted the first ever World Book Day. This year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of this wonderful annual event with the theme ‘You are a reader’. During this year’s theme we recognised the fact that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success.

Book Donations to The Dagoretti Muslim Library in Kwangware

At Braeburn are very fortunate to have a beautiful library full of books that can entertain, inform and transport the reader to another world. One of our goals for this year’s event was to extend this joy of reading to our wider community so, as part of the day’s celebration, we held a book drive. The generosity of the Braeburn community was outstanding and we managed to collect a grand total of over 1,100 books.

Dress Up

The day’s activities included the obligatory dressing up as a favourite book character as well as a range of whole school and class activities.

Peer Reading

To kick start the day we began with peer reading across the school, this was especially beneficial for our youngest pupils who enjoyed having a story read to them by the older pupils. Key Stage Three pupils also really loved this experience, and it is wonderful to see the older pupils supporting and encouraging their younger peers.

Author Display Gallery

After some fun reading scavenger hunts and storybook quizzes each class had to work collaboratively to design a display board for an Author’s Gallery. It was incredible to see how the teachers and pupils were able to work together to miraculously turn an old piece of cardboard into an interactive display depicting a character and educating the onlooker with a wealth of author information. This World Book Day activity was a ‘high stakes’ task with the winning classes being rewarded with Terrific Tuesday pizza. A big well done to 2B, 5S and 8S for impressing the judges! Please be sure to have a wander in the primary school art block where all the displays are exhibited.

Author Vists

Our very busy day concluded with the pupils meeting a couple of book authors and a journalist. We were honored to welcome Tracy Thomas to our Early Years and Key Stage One, Yolanda Chakava into Key Stage Two and Mukelwa Hlatshwayo (previously a reporter with Al Jazeera/South Africa) into Key Stage Three. Many of our Year 7 and 8 pupils expressed interest in becoming journalists, reporters or writers, and so they were very excited to learn from Mukelwa. Students reflected that backstory of how she became a journalist was particularly inspiring. Mukelwa encouraged all pupils that would like to become journalists, with her overarching message: stay curious, observant, empathic and foster critical thinking skills. These are the key traits/skills journalists need!

A big thank you to all the pupils and teachers for making this day a memorable event.