Across the college our pupils and staff have been celebrating World Book Day.  

Our Nursery and Junior School pupils thoroughly enjoyed dressing up in fabulous book themed outfits, as well as visiting the Junior School Library to have a look at the travelling book fair. They have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with some of our S6 pupils who have been on hand to help them pick a new book.

During their World Book Day assembly, a new Junior School initiative was revealed. Some of our Primary 7 pupils have volunteered to be Junior School Library Assistants, helping Mrs Ficken in the Library to set up new displays, re-shelve books and give exciting new book recommendations to their younger peers. We can’t wait to see how this new initiative develops over the coming years. 

Mrs Ficken, Junior School Librarian, shared: “The pupils’ excitement about World Book Day and the Book Fair has been building up all week. The whole school assembly this morning, with the children in their wonderful costumes, is definitely one of the many highlights of this term! With our new team of P7 Library Assistants on board, we will create Library displays on wide-ranging themes to show-case different books, authors and genres. The buzz of enthusiasm about books and reading will continue to grow throughout the Book Fair and far, far beyond!”

Some of our Primary 4 pupils participated in the 'Great World Book Day Live Draw-Along' with Swapna Haddow and Sheena Dempsey. The children learned how to draw 'Dave the Pigeon' from Swapna Haddow's best selling series. 

In our Senior School, pupils have been attending online assemblies and literary themed music quizzes. Our S3-S6 pupils have also been using their form time to enter the StoryBird Share a Story Competition where they have been tasked to write and illustrate a children's story using the app StoryBird. The best story will then be produced and bound, with pupils receiving their own copy and another being donated to the Junior School Library.  

We were also delighted to see so many pupils and staff come along to the RGC’s Used Book Sale in MacRobert Hall, with all proceeds and unsold books being donated to HomeStart Aberdeen. 

Miss England, Senior School English Teacher shared: “Emma Thompson once said, "I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them."  She is exactly right.  Books and stories have a way of somehow offering us exactly what we need at the time we most need it: comfort, hard truths, escapism,  joy…  Across Aberdeen and the rest of the UK, though, many children have yet to experience this for themselves.  The Guardian recently found that 1 in 5 children aged 5 to 8 in parts of the UK do not own a single book of their own.  That is why, this year, we want to remind our pupils of just how powerful a good book can be, and to encourage them to do what they can so that no child in Aberdeen is deprived of the opportunity to fall in love with literature.  Books can only ‘turn up in your life when you most need them’ if someone is there to hand one to you. For this reason, we were excited to have set up a charity book sale for both Junior and Senior School so that we all have a chance to share our favourite books with someone who will treasure them just as much as we have.  From the number of books sitting at the back of my classroom, ready to be donated to those who need them most, I can tell this World Book Day is going to truly be a magical experience for so many people around Aberdeen.  Happy reading, everyone!”

The S1-S2 annual World Book Day quiz returned to the Senior School Library. Made up of House teams, the pupils had a fantastic time working together to be in with a shot of winning the wonderful prizes donated by Haigs Food Hall in Aberdeen.

Mr Clement, Head of Senior School Library commented: “World Book Day is an opportunity for the whole College community to celebrate the importance of reading. According to various studies, reading is perhaps the most important way to develop empathy towards others. When we read, our brains react in much the same way as if the fictional situations were real, thus experiencing characters’ feelings and ultimately helping us to understand other people from different backgrounds, races, religions and cultures.”