
What is World Book Day supposed to be? Is it a chance to dress up or is it a chance to encourage children to read and love books?
Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed countless social media “World Book Day costume ideas” posts. Type the event into Google, and every search result has one common attribute. Ask a child “what is World Book Day?” and you’re greeted with a unanimous verdict of “dressing up!” Furthermore, take a trip to the supermarket and you’re faced with rows of fancy dress, often without a single book in sight (with the exception of celebrity authors).
Now I’m not knocking celebrity authors during a time when only 35% of 10-year-olds in England report that they like reading ‘very much’ (McGrane et al. 2017). There is a plethora of research to support the all-round benefits reading for pleasure provides, for example:
“Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education and is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.” (Sullivan and Brown, 2013)
However, Harris (2017) argues celebrity authors marketed on being “funny” are reducing children’s fiction to a minority of faces. If we want to model an inclusive society, children need to relate and see themselves in the themes they read. Therefore, we need to provide a diverse range of books where pupils have the opportunity to investigate other lives, worlds and perspectives. These encourage children to think, question and empathise. After all, a child is not reading if they cannot comprehend the text.
In light of this, shouldn’t World Book Day expose children to a range of fiction and non-fiction? For example, exploring stories, folk and fairy tales, myths and legends, classic and modern children’s fiction, poetry and picture books. World Book Day should be about celebrating the work we do year-round to promote a love of reading.
There are PLENTY of non-uniform events throughout the academic year, and I’d much rather a parent spent £15 on books rather than a supermarket costume. Furthermore, with the emphasis on dressing up, parents are more involved than the pupils! After all, the purpose of World Book Day is to “explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing children with the opportunity to have a book of their own”
The author
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Unify is an online sales and marketing tool that allows users to create tailored personalised documents in moments.
https://www.utility-aid.co.uk/
There’s nothing special about the energy we sell. In fact, it’s exactly the same energy as all our competitors provide. But there is something special about the way we do it. Where others complicate the process, we simplify it. Where others confuse customers with hidden terms, we’re an open book. And where others do all they can to make as much money from their customers as possible, we do all we can to make as little. Everything we do, we do it differently. Our customers are a privilege. One we’ll never take advantage of.
https://www.schoolspider.co.uk/
Book a 30 min demo here and claim your £50 Amazon voucher afterwards: calendly.com - A complete all in one system for managing your website, communicating with parents & staff, managing bookings & payments, lunches, parents' evenings, surveys & much more. Intuitive, flexible, powerful and extremely simple to use for anyone regardless of ICT knowledge.
https://www.rocketlearn.co.uk/
Combining the best of teaching with the best of edtech - via holiday learning programmes for schools and personal hybrid tutoring programmes for individuals.
Securus provide market-leading monitoring solutions to safeguard students on ALL devices both online and offline. We also offer a full monitoring service, where we carry out the monitoring on behalf of the school, freeing up valuable staff resources. From the smallest school to large MAT groups, Securus offers safeguarding protection for all!
As European leaders of Time Management Solutions, Bodet offer Lockdown, Clock, Bell & PA Systems. Harmonys, our five-in-one IP/PoE Bell System, provides a unique customisable lockdown or panic alarm alert. Melodys, a Wireless Bell System, is useful where wiring can be difficult.
Robotical makes Marty the Robot - a walking, dancing coding robot that makes programming fun and engaging for learners as young as 5. Our robots come with a full Learning Platform that has complete teaching resources, to make lesson planning a breeze.
https://www.fusionbusiness.org.uk/
As a group, Fusion Education People Solutions provide innovative HR Services and Software (SAM, SAMpeople and FACE-Ed), developed specifically for the sector by education specialists. We are trusted by over 1000 schools and trusts across the UK.