On Thursday 5 March 2020 pupils and staff across The Corinium Education Trust celebrated World Book Day by sharing their current or favourite reading books in a variety of different ways.

This year Chesterton Primary School challenged pupils and staff with a creative task: rather than dress up themselves, they were invited to turn potatoes into their favourite fictional characters. These potatoes were then put on display for all to see. They were incredibly imaginative and reflected the fun everyone had had. Headteacher Karen Venner said, ‘Our World Book Day was a tremendous success. The children brought in fantastically decorated potatoes, it was so difficult to choose only one winner per class.' She commended everyone on their efforts before confirming the winning potatoes: one of the ‘Ten Little Pirates’, the Ladybird from ‘What The Ladybird Heard’, Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’, ‘The BFG’, Olaf, ‘The Christmasaurus’, ‘Elmer’, a pair of Oompah Loompahs from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and Harry Potter. Winning pupils were each given a book token and were taken to Octavia’s Book Shop in Cirencester to purchase a book of their own choice.

Pupils at Siddington C of E Primary School had also been set a creative task: The Bible on a plate! There were some superb 3-D interpretations of the parables and stories! But on World Book Day itself, many arrived in a school dress as characters in their favourite book. Reception Teacher Mrs Hughes said ‘Pupils dressed up as lots of different characters and brought in the books that inspired their outfits. They showed off their super costumes in our whole school parade.’ Pupils at Siddington C of E Primary School reflected ‘It was very exciting. I liked seeing what everyone had put together’, 'The costumes were amazing' and 'I love World Book Day'. One even asked, 'Can we have World Book Day again tomorrow?'

Fairy Tales were the theme for World Book Day at Kemble Primary School. Following an assembly about The Brothers Grimm, teachers told classic fairy tales to their classes and encouraged more story telling. Milla and Ted said this was their ‘favourite part of the day’! Mrs Armstrong, Head of School, also used this special day to launch to launch the school’s first Readathon and, later in the afternoon, parents were invited to join their children for a mug of hot chocolate for a ‘Relax and Read’ session, choosing to share books from home or the school’s library. ‘This was the most wonderful experience I've had in ages. I couldn't make the Relax and Read last year. It's been fantastic.’ Parent of two pupils at Kemble Primary School.

Hot chocolate was also served with biscuits during the annual Readthon at Cirencester Deer Park School which took place over two days and involved over 80 pupils who had volunteered to read and raise money for local charity, Read for Good, who take mobile bookcases and storytellers to children in hospitals across the country. Impressively, over the last 13 Readathons at Deer Park, pupils at the school have raised nearly £13,000. Staff at Deer Park also shared the books they are currently reading and Mr Lay, Assistant Head of English, created a great display based on the old Penguin Classic book jacket design.