World Book Day

Yesterday was World Book day and as ever, Strand came alive with characters galore from our favourite children’s books. Staff and children alike put their all into dressing up, and as usual, capes and tails were seen flapping wildly in the typically chilly conditions during our fabulous whole school parade. Thanks to Mr Thorne, Year 3 and 4 were lucky enough to meet and listen to the wonderful Ross Montgomery, author of Perigee and Me, when he spoke to the children about all of his books. This was particularly exciting for Year 4, as Perigee and Me was their class novel at the beginning of the year. After reading the first gripping chapter Ross went on to demonstrate his editing process. The children managed to create a gruesome description of an evil monster, with scales as sharp as glistening glass and dark flaming red eyes. We have a feeling this scary creature will be featuring in many of the children’s stories! Not content with having one amazing author for World Book Day Mr Thorne also arranged for Andy Mulligan the author of ‘Trash’, ‘Liquidator’ and ‘Dog’ to visit Year 5 and 6. During the talk, Andy was asked how he had become an author. He told the children that he used to be a teacher, but one day he decided to record some of the funny stories about the children in his class which became published as his memoirs as a teacher. Andy then spoke about the inspiration for one of his most famous stories - ‘Trash’. When he was working as a teacher in the Philippines, Andy visited a local dumpsite as part of a school trip, raising an awareness amongst his school and their pupils about the wider world around them. Andy and the children in his class were so affected by what they had seen that they decided to try and help the people living on the dumpsite. While the children held fundraisers and supported a local charity, Andy used the opportunity to shine a light on the issues by writing a story set on the dumpsite.