The aim of this week is for students to get involved, even if they do not identify as a ‘big reader’. We hope that they can look back on the activities they took part in with fond memories and to then have great memories regarding reading. The theme this year was on contemplating different book genres, with activities reflecting on this. Thank you all for your support and I’m sure you will agree that students that took part all had a great time!

We started off the week by inviting students who have read over one million words to spend the day reading in the LRC. The LRC was transformed into a reading den and the students taking part were invited to bring in their pajamas and slippers to get cosy for a whole day of reading. We were delighted that when launching this incentive many students wished to take part which shows that Lealands students really do value and enjoy reading.

Every member of staff that walked past the LRC commented how jealous they were of the students' relaxing day!

As is tradition here at Lealands, we held a competition that was running before Literacy Week to see which tutor group can accumulate the most Accelerated Reader points since coming back from the winter break. It was very tense with weekly updates being delivered during tutor time, but I am happy to report 73PW were the winners of year 7, and 85ST were the winners of year 8.

73PW perceived themselves as the ‘underdogs’ of the competition, as they had the least amount of Accelerated Reader points for a while but managed to not only catch up, but be at the top of the leader board. This is a great example of not giving up and having resilience!

Another competition we hosted was the “Guess the Book Genre” whereby selected staff members wore a lanyard around the school of a book cover. It was a competition for the students to have to guess what book genre staff had on their lanyard. It has to be noted that our winner in year 8, Sami 86SF, was also very polite and cordial approaching staff members with a lanyard and was proactive in striking up a conversation about the book - well done Sami!

On Thursday, World Book Day, classes took part in a “Footy and Booky World Book Day” quiz, delivered live from numerous footballers in the UK. The questions were a mix of book and football related topics to appease a wide range of students.

Another live lesson students took part in was a live writing workshop, whereby students thought creatively on the spot to create their dream library. Some ideas were exceptionally imaginative and involved an underwater library where fishes could swim over your head as you read!

To end the week, staff dressed up as book characters and students got involved by having the very big responsibility of voting for the Best Dressed Member of Staff and Best Dressed Department. Staff members here are very competitive so it was a big task for students to vote!

Miss Keefe took the title of Best Dressed Member of Staff, and Humanities won Best Dressed Department, so well done to them. There were many brilliant costumes and I’m sure students had a hard time voting.

Students worked in tutor groups to decorate their tutor door. It was especially bright and colourful walking around the school and seeing different doors standing out. Like with voting for best dressed member of staff, I’m sure you can agree, it will be especially hard to vote for the best door design.