On Thursday 6th March, Duke of Kent School celebrated its annual World Book Day festivities - it was a fantastic day as all staff and pupils embraced dressing up as their favourite literary characters to mark this event. World Book Day is such an important occasion for the whole school, as it is a wonderful opportunity for the Duke of Kent School community to join together and celebrate a love for books and reading

The day started with the usual procession of the pupils’ costumes. There were Harry Potters, Ratatouille chefs, and even a couple of dinosaurs! The staff excelled again this year in their themes and ideas: the Science department were from ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Learning Development Department were from ‘Watership Down’ and the Performing Arts Department were a gorgeous range of characters from Beatrix Potter’s, ‘Peter Rabbit’. A special mention has to go to Mr Wyllie, who tottered around in his sparkly red shoes, trying to escape the harsh stares of his Head of Department, Mrs Tattan-Robb as the Wicked Witch of the West!

The Performing Arts Hall, during assembly, was transformed into the Mastermind stage, hosted by Dobby (aka Mr Southee). Staff and pupils alike were put through their paces to see who knew their chosen topics the best. The winning house was Kestrel, headed by Mrs Southee, Edie H and Henry S, who just pipped Peregrine at the post by one point.

Throughout the day, pupils participated in activities within their English lessons which celebrated books and the love of reading. Year 10 devised their own podcasts based around debates such as: ‘Is Reading Still Relevant’ and ‘Books vs Films’. Year 7 created a ‘Story in a Jar’ and Year 8 started reading journeys, creatively demonstrating their own reading from the age of 4 to the present day.

During lunchtime, Annabel O, Mercy M, Edie H and Josie M ran crafty book activities with the Prep School, where pupils created origami creatures, beautiful book marks and funny stories using a lucky dip of characters and themes. There was also the opportunity to grab a new read in our book swap, run by Will B, Jamie C, Mattie R, Lucy M and Rose S.

In the afternoon, Year 11 participated in paired reading with the Year 5 and 6 pupils, where they not only read to each other, but chatted about their own personal favourites.

During the whole of this week, Year 9 have taken a special trip to Pre-prep to read the children’s literature books they had written and created in English and Computer Science. It was a brilliant experience for the children to become published authors! Seeing them read their stories to the Pre-Prep pupils in action was both heartening and endearing - the Pre-prep staff were so complimentary about both the books and how engaging and animated the Year 9 pupils were with the Pre-prep children.

As always, there was an immense buzz throughout the School as the pupils relished in letting their love for books and creativity free. Thank you to the amazing Duke of Kent School staff for taking the time to dress up and promote a love of reading across the School!

The English Department