The pupils at Kennet Valley School have had a fantastic time celebrating Book Week, culminating with a special celebration of World Book Day. This year has been extra special, as rather than dressing as a character from a book, the school have instead had what is known as a Vocabulary Parade, where the children had to choose a word and then dress up to showcase what the word means. For example we had words such as supersonic, curious, marauder, contusion, majestic, elegant and invertebrate, to name but a few! We have found that the Vocabulary Parade stimulated much conversation and discussion about many little-known words and has really helped everyone to understand and visualise words.

Mrs Russell, the Head Teacher stated; “The Vocabulary Parade has been a huge hit, and the atmosphere in the school has been electric; we have had a fantastic selection of words and some fabulous ways to visually represent them. Every pupil can definitely go home this week knowing and more importantly, understanding, words that they had not been aware of before, which is fantastic, and I thank all pupils, parents and staff for putting so much effort in to this very rewarding day”.

Pupils from Nursteed Community Primary School in Devizes celebrated World Book Day on Thursday 5th March with a bundle of new books for their school library, donated by Morrisons Devizes.

The books were gifted to the school thanks to a partnership between the Morrisons Foundation and the National Literacy Trust. Working together, the charities aim to encourage 125,000 children from local communities discover a love of reading this World Book Day.

The books were presented to pupils by Michelle Hawkings, Community Champion at the local Morrisons store in Devizes, who said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to donate these new books to a local school. There’s a great selection of books, so every pupil will be able to find a story they will enjoy.”

This donation is part of a wider national project funded by the Morrisons Foundation in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, which is working to fill the bookshelves of 492 primary school libraries and reading spaces local to Morrisons branches all over the country with a collection of colourful, exciting and engaging new books published by Penguin Random House. This grant was awarded to the National Literacy Trust following their research which shows that children who enjoy reading and use their school library perform better in school and are happier with their lives1.

Every book bundle will include a copy of Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties by children’s author Humza Arshad, who is also an ambassador for the partnership.

Jonathan Douglas, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust said, “We are thrilled to be working with Morrisons to bring the gift of reading to 125,000 children across the UK by getting brand new books into primary schools. School budgets are stretched, many school libraries are struggling and 1 in 11 disadvantaged children don’t have a single book of their own at home; so it has never been more important to get books into the schools that need them most. When children discover a love of reading, they do better at school and later in life, so we must do everything we can to inspire children to fall in love with reading for a lifetime.”

The Morrisons Foundation was set up by Morrisons supermarket in 2015 and awards grants for charity projects which help improve people’s lives. Since launching over £29 million has been donated to hundreds of charities across England, Scotland and Wales.

MARLBOROUGH Ladies Who Latte helped with a bumper pile of World Book Day donations.

Their efforts were co ordinated by Swindon Soroptimists who notched up 286 books to give to Drove Primary School in Swindon.

President Valerie, members Jackie Webb and Lydia Cardew attended the special Book Day assembly where the children wore their story book character costumes.

Principal Helen Swanson said:

“Thank you so much for these books. Reading is so high profile due to the different languages at the school and makes such a difference to the children’s education and their futures”.

Assistant Principal Bryony Bardwell thanked the Soroptimists for the donations and explained:

“We are hoping to open a book swap station or something similar for our families to access at points throughout the term. This will allow parents to borrow a range of books to read at home with their children and allow them opportunities to experience books they may not have had access to otherwise.

"We’ve developed our reading corners over the last few years and we now want to expand the accessibility of books and encourage that love of reading across the Drove community both in and out of school".

The Swindon Soroptimists help the local community by providing clothes, food and funds to the Nelson Trust Women’s Centre and Swindon Women’s Aid.