Book Week 2023

*Originally posted on previous blog www.mrbowkerinmalaysia.com in February 2023*

As part of my remit as Primary English Coordinator it is one of my responsibilities to organise whole school events. This is something new to me this year, but a challenge that I am happy to take on. I have been learning a lot about leadership strategies (and will be writing a blog about this soon) and so tasks like this give me a great opportunity to hone these skills.

Book Week in our school falls between the 27th February - 3rd March. This is to ensure it covers World Book Day 2023 on Thursday 2nd March.

In Malaysia, although 95% of adults are literate, this simply means they can read and write short sentences. Research from local universities suggests that reading isn't embedded in family life, and that the average Malaysian only reads 2 books a year, and many who make up this number are students 'forced' to read books for exams.

Bearing in mind the importance of reading to overall academic and personal achievement in life, promoting a love of books and enjoyment of reading is especially important in our setting.

Rather than filling every lesson of every day with book-related tasks, which may become tiresome, and would also limit time for teachers to teach an already loaded curriculum, I decided to utilise the 45 minute reading/phonics slot we have each day across the school.

Each day we will have different activities, and these have been promoted to pupils in Assemblies and to parents with flyers. (If you don't already use Canva then I recommend it to make professional looking flyers, newsletters and even worksheets in no time!)

The overall theme for Book Week this year follows that of World Book day, which is 'You are a Reader', and focuses on supporting the underprivileged. We simplified it in school to be focusing on friendship and kindness.

On Monday we will have a dress up day, which is always a hit. It's great to hear pupils discussing their chosen characters with enthusiasm and sharing what they know about their books. It also starts the week with a bang and gets everyone excited.

On Tuesday each class will have a Mystery Reader. This involves seeing a photo of a teacher holding a book covering their face. The class then guess which teacher may be coming to their class - this creates a lot of excitement. The pupils really get excited by having a different teacher from another year group read to them and will hopefully increase their enjoyment of listening to the story having a different adult in the class.

On Wednesday we have a Book Swap event.

I had high hopes for this when I decided to implement the idea having seen it be so successful in other schools, and had really hoped every child would be able to bring in a book, receive a token to be able to swap it. I had also planned to have a few spares for those that had not brought in a book so that everyone could take part. I spoke to our parent group to promote this and spread word, as well as sharing flyers with all parents and promoting it with the pupils in class and in assemblies. In the lead up to this event I was concerned at the lack of books that had been donated, so put out a last call for books to the parents and pupils and ... *edit after the event* and oh boy did they deliver! In the end we have more than enough for the pupils to swap and exchange. I was delighted when a pupil came up to me at the end of the day and said 'My bag is so heavy with new books, I can't wait to get home and read them'. This was exactly what this event was all about.**

On Thursday the whole school are doing craft related to books; I have given teachers some ideas such as; - Making a whole class character by drawing around a pupil and choosing their name, what they look like (decorating / painting) and creating a character description. - Making new front covers for class novels / favourite books - Making bookmarks to be laminated and taken home As Book Week is deliberately quite prescriptive due to its nature as a whole school event, this is also a time for teachers to have the freedom to choose their own way of celebrating, especially as it is World Book Day so any arts and crafts are promoted. My year group, however, will have an extra special treat. Our IPC (International Primary Curriculum) topic for the half term is 'Chocolate' - looking at how and where it is made, it's scientific properties, the journey it goes on and how it is mass produced. Alongside this our English writing unit will be to be write a persuasive advert for a chocolate bar, and our reading book for the half term is 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' - by no means an original choice but I just love Roald Dahl and it's a privilege to introduce his work with younger readers.

To pull all of this together, and start our topic off with a bang we have chosen to 'have a break' from the classroom and find out if smarties really do have the answer by going on a field trip to a Chocolate Factory (well, museum, but close enough). Pupils have the opportunity to learn all about the history of chocolate and we've also organised a workshop for the class designing chocolate houses (like gingerbread houses, but out of chocolate). The class and I are really looking forward to this and I'm delighted we could pull the different areas of the curriculum together and celebrate it on World Book Day.

Finally, on Friday we've set up a buddy reading session with Secondary (we cater from EYFS to Year 11), where secondary pupils will be coming to our primary classrooms to read to small groups. Organising this has taken a fair amount of coordination with the secondary Head of English due to timetabling, but should be well worth it. Pupils are also encouraged to wear pyjamas to school and bring in a cuddly toy or blanket so that they can get cosy. Hopefully this will be a great way to end to the week and promote reading across the school.

Alongside the daily events in class I have also set up some optional competitions to be completed at home, these are;

1. A short story writing competition

2. An illustration competition

3. A Book Worm competition - seeing who could read the most over the week

Certificates and prizes will be awarded per year group in the following week's assembly.

Additionally, as I didn't want the children to have all the fun, and because for a long time I have wanted to do my part to improve the health and well being and atmosphere in the school, I set up a staff book swap. This is completely optional and something that can run as long as staff want to use it. As teachers I think we should model the behaviours we expect in our children as much as possible, so if I can go some way to promote reading among the teachers and share some happiness - a half term, in my opinion, is always improved with a new book - then I'm happy to put in the effort to set it up.

Finally, as a way of really promoting the reading culture outside of school, as well as inside it, I have set up a workshop for parents to promote reading at home.

I'm now really looking forward to Book Week in our school and am hoping it will be a success (with only minor issues if any). If it goes even some small way to addressing the nationwide issue in Malaysia relating to a lack of reading culture, at least for the pupils within our setting, then I'll be absolutely delighted.

Thanks for reading!

Laurence