World Book Day: a week full of page turning activities at Sheffield Girls’

Students at Sheffield Girls’ have enjoyed a jam packed week of activities to celebrate World Book Day 2023.

We kicked off the week with a fascinating assembly led by English teacher Mrs Duffy, who spoke to students about ‘Books that changed the world’. Students also had the opportunity to join in on the first lunchtime activity of the week, The Toilet Roll Book Character Challenge. Pupils were tasked with putting their recycling to good use and making their favourite book character out of a toilet roll tube. 

On Tuesday, students had the opportunity to visit the Book Cafe at lunch. Each book, from a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres, came with a suggested page to digest and students could either take that book home or move on and ‘taste’ something else. There was a real buzz in the library throughout lunch and lots of the suggested books were borrowed. The Student Librarians were kept very busy with a constant queue at the issue desk.

A particular highlight of the week was author Tamsin Winter visiting students on Wednesday to share her journey to becoming an author, the inspiration behind her best selling books and her best writing tips. Tamsin explained how she beats writers’ block by picturing that one person who “really needs her book.” She told pupils she wants them to read her books and realise that “you’re perfect… you’re amazing the way that you are”. Tamsin also joined the judging panel for the World Book Day Bake Off. Well done to everyone who took part, we had an outstanding selection of scrumptious literary themed treats which were later sold to raise money for World Book Day and Book Aid International. Congratulations to our overall winner, Sophie in Year 7, who created an outstanding Willy Wonka themed bake.

On Thursday, we were transported to Hogwarts for the Harry Potter Kudos Cup, which tested our students' knowledge of the Harry Potter book series through four rounds of challenging questions. Congratulations to the winning team, Charlotte, Abi and Millie, and to everyone who took part!

Our Infant and Junior School pupils dazzled us with their range of book character outfits and enjoyed their annual book fair, with every student taking home a new book to enjoy.

To round off the week on a high, thirty staff members and students across the Senior School took part in a Literary Pairs House competition. Each staff member acted as one half of a pair of book characters and our pupils had the whole school day to match 15 pairs.

Mrs Godwin, Senior School Librarian, said: “It has been a delight to see how much joy this week has brought our students and staff. They have been inspired to ‘taste’ new books, bring their favourite books to life in cake form and have worked together whilst expanding their love for reading and books.”

A huge thank you to all of our staff and students who worked incredibly hard to plan and host activities across the week.