#WORLDBOOKDAY2023

As one of the biggest events in any school calendar, Inspiration Trust went dressing up, incredible events, and an array of well-thought-out activities went all out for World Book Day with activities taking places across our schools.

Pupils at Cobholm Primary Academy paired their love of reading with their love of music, taking the time to create ‘story soundtracks’ and noises to accompany ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ using a wide range of instruments.

At both Cobholm Primary Academy and Diamond Academy, children were also able to show off their artistic talents through creating their favourite story characters on wooden spoons, all while enjoying the amazing backdrops that had been created by the teachers - whole classrooms decorated to represent wellknown book covers!

Throughout the day Reception children at both schools went exploring the grounds in search of their favourite reading spots, while pupils from all year groups were able to take part in a number of storyinspired activities including bookmark making, letter writing, and creating a story which the whole class contributed to.

At Norwich Primary Academy children also enjoyed a full day of book-inspired activities that covered everything from arts and crafts through to drama and origami. Pupils created ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ wanted posters, made ‘Room on the Broom’ brooms, took part in Matilda and Gruffalo performances, made ‘Kitchen-Disco’ inspired food from Playdough, and even did some creative writing around the ‘Wizard of Oz’ - just to name a few things.

Over at Stradbroke Primary Academy, pupils and staff leant into how relaxing reading is and took the opportunity to wear pjs for the day. Classes ‘buddied up’ with each other to snuggle down in the hall on blankets and pillows, taking the time to share and read their favourite stories together.

The school also held a ‘Book Swap’, giving children the chance to swap their pre-loved books with those from another home, promoting a love of reading and the importance of sharing our favourite books with one another.

Over at Charles Darwin Primary, pupils marked the occasion by dressing up as their favourite book characters, with some children even dressing up in outfits relating to the school’s core texts.

All pupils got to show-off their outfits in a special assembly where they were able to explain why they chose to be that character for the day. They also shared the names of other authors and illustrators they were fans of. Some children even created their own stories throughout the day - future authors in the making!

At Great Yarmouth Primary Academy, the pupils’ love of books shone throughout all lessons. Even in Maths, where each class collected data on their year group’s favourite books and produced pictograms and bar charts to represent the findings.

Alongside this, the academy completed a whole-school writing challenge based on the wordless picture book ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker, with each year group responsible for writing a different part of the story.

The fun continued with Key Stage 1 pupils becoming detectives, taking time to discover the different storybook characters that had visited the school library the night before and left a series of clues behind them. The children found many peculiar items including a plate with a marmalade paw print, a mysterious waistcoat and a pocket watch.

Key Stage 2 children took part in an Extreme Reading Challenge which saw them go in search of the most unusual place for them to enjoy reading their book - everything being completed in an array of amazing outfits consisting of everything from princesses and superheroes through to Harry Potter and Oompa Loompas!

Across our secondaries there was just as much excitement and an appreciation of all things book-related with a number of imaginative events and activities taking place.

Hethersett Academy encouraged its students to have a ‘Blind Date with a Book’, which saw staff wrap over 100 books so students could choose their ‘date’ based on genre and the first line of the book alone.

Over at King Edward VII Academy, World Book Day turned into World Book Week! Having worked extremely hard to develop its culture of reading and deep love for books since joining Inspiration Trust, the school took the opportunity to go all out with their book-based plans.

Their creation of ‘The Masked Reader’, inspired by the popular ITV show, ‘The Masked Singer’ was a big hit and saw pupils having to guess book titles based on the extracts that the teachers read out to them.

Alongside this, over 150 pupils at KES Academy designed reading posters which the school went on to digitally produce in order to display them across the digital screens they have dotted around the school.

The academy went on to make the most of its brand new library, hosting an array of reading-themed events and activities that included writing six-word stories and sharing with other students the books they have been reading.

Finally, students were also able to pick up a free book of their choice and combined this with showing off their creative talents by designing an accompanying bookmark that doubled up as a reading ruler.

#WorldBookDay2023

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WOMEN IN STEM. Inspiration Trust launches its Women in STEM Mentoring Scheme

In-line with our commitment to provide our female students with more opportunities to take up STEM subjects, we are extremely proud to have been able to launch our Women in STEM Mentoring Scheme late last year.

The scheme, which sees inspirational women working in STEM careers across our region provide 1:1 support, guidance and mentoring to our GCSE and A-Level students, has already been a huge success, with the confidence our female students have to pursue STEM subjects increasing significantly.

The mentors meet with our students monthly to discuss their ambitions and work together to set goals that will support them in their post-18 choices, talking to them about their own real-life experiences of working within their own STEM careers.

We are really pleased to be currently working with women from Atkins Global, Cholich and Conisbee, and are keen to expand the number of businesses and organisations we are partnered in the future to offer our students even more opportunities.