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School Libraries Celebrate World Book Day 2022

Category: Blog, Branches and Groups, SLG Scotland

It’s World Book Day (WBD) on Thursday 3rd March, and school librarians across Scotland are getting ready celebrate all things books, reading and stories with their school communities. Unlike last year, we’re back in school and celebrating in person – and if the following is anything to go by, we’re more than ready to dress up! If you’re looking for inspiration, check out what the SLG Scotland committee have planned for the day: 

Derek France, Preston Lodge High School, Prestonpans 

Our Senior Book group will be designing a Dystopian/Climate Fiction event along the lines of rebels versus government. There’s going to be 3 phases – intelligence test, physical test and debate. Expect excitement! There will be more relaxing activities too, like audiobooks and hot chocolate in the library class visits, before the whole school Title Quest Competition, where we’ll be using badges with quotes for students to find. 

Pamela McLean, St Ninian’s High School, Kirkintilloch 

We’re going for Reading Schools accreditation from the Scottish Book Trust this year, and our Reading Leadership team have a few things planned for WBD. Some of our braver S6 pupils have volunteered to dress up as different book characters and authors, with our S1-S3 pupils competing to guess who is who. We’re teaming up with our in-school café to change the names of coffees and teas to book-themed titles, with quizzes to guess the books they’re based on. We’re also hoping to have a whole-school quiz to celebrate 25 years of World Book Day and Harry Potter. 

Shelagh Toonen, Elgin Academy, Moray 

Books and baking are order of the day at Elgin Academy, with Costumes and Cakes as the banner for all of our activities. Pupils and staff can judge their cake by its cover by designing their own Book Biscuits in the H.E. department – ingredients will all be provided, and biscuits can be decorated with a quote or a cover from favourite books. Best of all, the biscuits can be enjoyed in the library over lunch, while reading on a beanbag.  

Team EA staff are taking part in Wear It to Win It! by resembling a book character or an author, or accessorising with something a book character wears – staff have the option to create costumes individually, in pairs, in groups, or as a staff department aka The Weasleys; Alice in Wonderland characters or The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. There will be fancy cakes – especially made by our HE staff – dropped off in the morning to all departments which take part. Costumes and accessories will be available in the Drama department to help with assembling a costume. 

Staff are also invited to change the names of their departments to the name of a book, to represent the department. For example: Maths department = The Life of Pi.  H.E. = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Geography = Around The World in 80 Days. The names will be changed on doors and in the corridors. 

Tanya Odie, Anderson High School, Lerwick, Shetland 

It’s early days in our planning so nothing’s set in stone yet, but here are some ideas we’ve thought about:  

  • Big Book Swap 
  • Library and English staff dressing up 
  • 10 minute story sharing 
  • BookToks made and shared by our pupils 
  • Hidden Book Covers competition. 

We hope these ideas have inspired some of your own. Happy World Book Day when it comes! 

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