Books come to life at Cheadle Hulme

Wed 16th June 2010 12.41PM

FAIRIES, witches, wizards, Harry Potters, Where’s Wally and even Thomas the Tank rolled into Cheadle Hulme Junior School during a special ‘Book Week’ event. More than 300 pupils and staff bought their favourite book to life by dressing up as one of its characters, in colourful and imaginative costumes. The event was set up by Kate Sargent, Year 6 teacher and library coordinator, to raise the profile of reading.

Pupils rose to the challenge by enthusiastically taking part in the stimulating programme of events. During the week two editorial teams worked hard to produce the ‘CHS Express’ newspaper and ‘Toast’ magazine. The ‘newsrooms’ in Year 5 consisted of Editors and two offices of reporters, advertising staff and photographers who were challenged to cover all the events over the week as well as conducting interviews, generating exclusive advertising and writing features related to books. Proceeds from the sales of these publications will be going to charities decided on by the children involved.

To hone the pupils’ creative skills further a puppet competition was organised with the winners from each class choosing a book as a prize. The puppets, including a ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ are now proudly on display in the reception area. A poetry competition for Year 5 also challenged the children to work in pairs to learn and recite two poems.And the results of a survey conducted by Year 6 to find out the top 10 book list amongst both adults and children was announced during Friday’s assembly. The number 1 choice for adults was ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen and for the children’s was ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ by Jeff Kinney.

The innovative campaign ‘DEAR’ (Drop Everything And Read) also meant whenever a bell was rung everyone had to stop and read for five minutes. Kate was delighted with the tremendous support for the event. She said: “Everyone seemed to have a great time! One girl even said it had been her favourite ever week at school: “Everyone is talking about my favourite thing, which is reading. We also had fun when Walking Club took up the challenge by making their destination Cheadle Hulme Library.”